Murder Takes a Turn

June 1, 2018

When Charles Elder receives an invitation from his childhood friend, now best-selling author Denbigh Connaught, asking him to come to his house in Cornwall so he can apologize for the past, Charles is devastated. He confides in his business partner, literary agent Maria Dupré, who agrees to accompany him with her husband, Donald Langham, an author and part-time private detective. The reclusive Denbigh, dislikable as ever, shuts himself up in his study, and to no one's surprise is found murdered. Of the guests invited to Connaught House, only Maria and Donald lack a motive, so Donald urges an old friend from Scotland Yard to take the case. VERDICT Despite a few clichés, this latest series outing, set in the 1950s (after Murder Take Three), offers an entertaining locked-room mystery with an ingenious murder device that will appeal to fans of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and other Golden Age crime fiction.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2018
In the latest Donald Langham and Maria Dupre mystery, Charles Elder, literary agent to novelist Langham, is invited to spend the weekend at an estate in Cornwall, away from the hustle of 1950s England. The man extending the invitation is the well-known writer Denbigh Connaught; Charles doesn't really want to go, but Donald and his wife, Maria, persuade him to accept the invitation?only to find out that a 40-year-old incident involving Charles and Connaught hasn't been left in the past after all. Well-realized characters and a beautifully evoked setting will keep readers engaged.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)