Murder is for keeps

In Duncan's lackluster eighth mystery featuring spa owner and artist Penny Brannigan (after 2016's Murder on the Hour), Penny finds a body in the grounds of Gwrych Castle, near her home in North Wales. The dead man volunteered with a crew renovating the castle, and after his developmentally challenged son disappears, Penny pieces together a connection between their family, the renovation's site manager, and a 20-year-old theft. Meanwhile, a skeleton turns up in the castle garden, and Penny's friend Gareth Davies, recently retired from the police force, investigates. Duncan's reliance on dialogue to explicate plot points sometimes leads to stilted conversations and a facile treatment of the characters' emotions, such as when Gareth tells Penny about a new romance. Newcomers might be bewildered by the array of secondary characters, but longtime fans should enjoy cameos from many of Llanelan's quirky residents, whose participation in a pub quiz to raise money for the castle restoration provides a humorous interlude. Anglophiles will savor details about the castle's history and gardens. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Fascination with a ruined faux castle involves an artist in a case of murder in North Wales.Despite its pretensions, Gwrych Castle is not ancient. It's a Victorian castellated mansion, sadly in ruins. As part of the ongoing attempt to clean and re-create its formerly magnificent gardens, expatriate Canadian artist Penny Brannigan is doing a series of paintings to be auctioned off for the cause. After retired DCI Gareth Davies drops her off at the castle, Penny follows a fox and finds a body. She wastes no time in reporting her discovery to Gareth, a dear friend who'd prefer to be Penny's romantic interest. Although Gareth is very interested indeed, he carefully leaves the police work to his former assistant, DI Bethan Morgan, so as not to step on any toes. Penny, however, has no such constraints, and after the dead man is identified as retired landscape architect John Hardwick, his wife, Christina, familiar with Penny's reputation for crime solving (Murder On The Hour, 2016, etc.), asks her to investigate. Christina is convinced that John was murdered. The inability of the police to come up with a cause of death doesn't prevent her from suspecting his former wife, who lives nearby with their mentally challenged son, a volunteer at Gwrych. Penny and Gareth's fascination with what went on when the castle was in its prime keep them in the hunt until they find an unexpected clue courtesy of Gareth's late grandmother, who worked at Gwrych as a seamstress. Duncan's character-driven series delivers again. While the story telegraphs the killer's identity pretty clearly, the information on the real-life Welsh estate and gardens makes up for the simple mystery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.