Publishers Weekly
05/25/2020
In Dams’s intriguing 23rd Dorothy Martin mystery (after Death in the Garden City), murder spoils the visit of retired American schoolteacher Dorothy and her British husband, retired policeman Alan Nesbit, to Durham, England, the home of Alan’s old police colleague, David Tregarth. David’s elderly great-aunt, a resident with dementia at a nursing home outside the city, is the chief suspect in the killing of Blake Armstrong, a physician who was taking a few days rest at the nursing home. Dorothy, an experienced amateur sleuth, joins Alan and David in trying to find the real culprit, aided by a student guide from Durham University, where the couple are staying. They discover that Armstrong may have been hiding out at the home because he saw something he shouldn’t have, and that tidbit leads to connections with the university as well as a wealthy dysfunctional family. The tension rises as another nursing home resident and Dorothy are attacked. Cozy fans and Anglophiles will be satisfied. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Assoc. (July)
From the Publisher
Anglophiles and history buffs alike will enjoy the cozy mystery merged with travelogue details … perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Alexander McCall Smith Booklist on A Dagger Before Me
Booklist
"The author's tale-telling and dialogue - the back and forth of a comfortable is wonderfully depicted - will serve to draw readers in. Dams' followers know what to expect and will be happy to find it here"
Booklist on A Dagger Before Me
"Anglophiles and history buffs alike will enjoy the cozy mystery merged with travelogue details, perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Alexander McCall Smith"
Booklist
"The author's tale-telling and dialogue - the back and forth of a comfortable is wonderfully depicted - will serve to draw readers in. Dams' followers know what to expect and will be happy to find it here"
Booklist on Crisis in the Cathedral
"Fans of the series will be pleased to see this engaging heroine once more"
Kirkus Reviews
2020-04-13
Sleuths with a highly developed sense of fairness fight prejudice.
During a visit to see their friend David Tregarth, a retired policeman in the ancient English city of Durham, American expatriate Dorothy Martin and her husband, former chief constable Alan Nesbit, are introduced to Tregarth’s great-aunt Amanda, who suffers from dementia and lives in the posh Milton Home, where she is lovingly cared for until she is accused of murdering Blake Armstrong, a semiretired geriatric doctor with a dodgy reputation. Amanda, who’s naturally upset, is the perfect scapegoat since she has no memory of smothering the doctor with a pillow and would never be prosecuted even if she had. While the sleuthing duo enjoy the historic beauties of Durham, they work to clear Amanda, who looks no guiltier than all the old ladies the doctor cared for and methodically bilked. The couple make friends with Timothy Hayes, an entertaining castle guide and theology student who must struggle to pay his tuition because his mother’s best friend changed her will favoring Timothy and left her estate to Dr. Armstrong. Then Timothy’s friend Eileen Walsh, who had reported a drowning in the nearby river, reveals that she saw Dr. Armstrong nearby. When a second patient is attacked and Amanda’s put on notice to find another home, Dorothy uses her ability to extract information to help the police find the truth.
A travelogue, a complex mystery, and an empathetic look at the horrific nature of dementia.
