Middle Sister's March Reads

March included two trips, one business, one pleasure, so I had a fair amount of airplane time to read.

A Lethal Walk in Lakeland by Nicholas George This is the second book in the series that revolves around retired policeman Rick 'Chase' Chasen and rambles in the English countryside. It's nearly a year after the first book, and Chase and Mike, the Devonshire coroner he met in the first book, have been talking regularly and their romance is heating up. So Chase decides to go spend time with Mike and together explore the Lake District. Unfortunately, Mike is prevented from starting the walk by an urgent work-related incident, and Chase reluctantly decides to continue the walk alone. Well, not completely alone, as his friend Billie is also along for the walk, as are several members of a family that have come to find closure on the walk. Then suddenly, one family member is dead, the rest are suspicious of each other, and Chase has to untangle threads from a terrible tragedy in their childhood as well as solve the modern day murder. I like this series; Chase is a pleasant main character, and I'm happy to see him ready for romance with Mike after the death of his husband. I just wish Chase didn't wallow in his feelings quite as much as he does, but that's a personal opinion. I look forward to the next book in the series, where hopefully Mike will be more a central character helping Chase solve whatever mystery they encounter on their next ramble. (Net Galley)

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey This is one of my favorite mysteries of all time, and my copy somehow was lost. Macmillan published a reprint I bought over 20 years ago that had a duplicate section of about 30 pages, but the actual 30 pages of text were missing. I've been searching for a clean copy ever since. I was in Denver for a conference and wandered into used bookstore and there it was, a clean copy! I read the entire book, cover to cover, in my flight home. Tey's masterpiece is notable for two things: Inspector Allen Grant is not able to do any physical investigation as he's bedridden with a bad broken leg, and this is one of the earlier books to utilize this plot device that I know of. And it almost single-handedly revived the interest in the murder of the princes in the Tower, providing a cogent argument against their uncle Richard III as the murderer that has been cited by many Ricardians as their jumping off point for delving deeper into this medieval mystery. The book stands the test of time, remaining as riveting more than 70 years after it was published as any modern mystery. An excellent mystery I recommend to anyone. 

Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie While I've read all of Christie's novels, I haven't read all of her short stories. I listened to this audio recording of four Hercule Poirot stories, originally published in 1937, and was not disappointed. Was Barbara Allen's death a suicide? Will secret war plans be stolen for the Nazis? Who killed Sir Gervase, who summoned Poirot but who was killed before the detective arrived? And who killed the beautiful Valentine Chantry: her jealous husband, her lover, or someone else? It was absolutely wonderful getting to listen to what were new-to-me Christies.