Death of an avid reader

Kate Shackleton, a WWI widow from Leeds, England, who has reinvented herself as a private detective, has been engaged by a London noblewoman to find her illegitimate daughter, thought to have been adopted by a family near Leeds. She starts her investigations at the library, stopping to chat with Dr. Potter, a mathematician who also serves with Kate on the library committee. Then matters turn a little weird. First, there's the capuchin monkey Kate finds stowed away in her car. Then there's the exorcism she agrees to attend at the library, and finally, there's the crumpled body of Dr. Potter, which Kate finds in the library basement. The police immediately accuse a shivering, barely alive organ grinder (remember the monkey?). As Kate, a former nurse, nurses the accused, she concludes that he cannot have bashed Dr. Potter and determines to prove his innocence, though the murder investigation impedes her real case. These various, unlikely threads do come together eventually, and, in the process, Brody draws the reader into the wacky doings in Leeds.--Muller, Karen Copyright 2016 Booklist

In Brody's charming sixth mystery set in 1920s England (after Murder on a Summer's Day), private detective Kate Shackleton agrees to help Lady Coulton locate the daughter she gave up soon after birth while her husband-who's not the child's father-was serving in South Africa during the Boer War. Lord Coulton, who's on his deathbed, would have divorced her at the time had he known of her indiscretion. Kate's search for the now-grown daughter takes her to Yorkshire, where she ends up participating in a ceremony to expel alleged ghosts from an old library in Leeds. In the library's dark cellar she happens on the strangled body of a well-known mathematician, as well as an organ grinder who's barely alive. Former policeman Jim Sykes ably assists Kate in the ensuing investigation. Kate and Jim are sharply rendered, quirky and intelligent with complementary skills. Readers will enjoy watching them at work. Agent: Judith Murdoch, Judith Murdoch Literary (U.K.). (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.