Trap Lane

December 12, 2016
Cameron’s third cozy (after 2015’s Out Comes the Evil) featuring pub owner Alex Duggins and her love interest, veterinarian Tony Harrison, won’t do much for readers not previously invested in these underdeveloped leads. Alex returned home to the Cotswolds village of Folly-on-Weir, following her divorce and the death of her infant daughter. Five year’s later, she’s now considering placing a memorial bench for her daughter in a local churchyard. While visiting the churchyard, Alex enjoys hearing the singing and piano playing of a woman inside the church. After the music ends abruptly, Alex enters the church, where she’s horrified to find a dead woman, later identified as 22-year-old Laura Quillam, lying underneath the piano. The police soon classify the death as a possible homicide, and Alex, who is wracked with guilt at having been so near at the fatal instant, once again plays amateur sleuth. The Quillam family’s dysfunctions provide ample room for speculation as to motive, but none of the characters makes much of an impression, and the climax is fairly melodramatic.

April 15, 2016
Elyan Quillam is a brilliant pianist, but his domineering father's insistence on running the young man's career is causing problems in the family. Elyan's sister, Laura, a talented singer who suffers from heart problems, and Elyan's stepmother, a violinist, have been pushed aside to make sure that Elyan's future as a world-class pianist takes priority. When Elyan's father announces that he's rented a house in the tiny Cotswold village of Folly-on-Weir and that he plans to move the family there so Elyan can focus on his upcoming world tour, Elyan is distressed. Shortly after the family arrives, local pub owner and amateur sleuth Alex Duggins discovers the dead body of Laura in the local church. The tragedy shocks the small village, especially since it's one of several brutal crimes there over the past few yearscrimes that Alex and her boyfriend, veterinarian Tony Harrison, have solved. While the police scratch their heads, Alex and Tony begin to trail the killer. A well-plotted mystery with an engaging sleuths and a fascinating frame story detailing the underside of the classical-music world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)