India Ink, Scent of the Grave

Scent of the Grave

India Ink

Berkley, Oct 2005, $6.99, 272 pp.

ISBN 0425205339

Her live-in-lover, the "nice" Elliot, was arrested for embezzling and quickly turned state's evidence on his employers for money laundering. Persia Vanderbilt left to return home to Gull Harbor on Puget Sound's Port Samanish Island. There she works for the woman who raised her, her Aunt Florence, owner of Venus Envy, a business that creates custom blended oils and spa services.

Lydia Wang, the winner of the Radiance Cosmetics Beauty Contest, asks Persia to make a special scent for her. While she is waiting, Lydia is nasty to the store's gardener, her ex-boyfriend Trevor Wilson. She also gets into a fight with the beauty contest runner up Colleen and Colleen's friend Debbie who has an inferiority complex. The next day when Persia opens the business, she finds Lydia's murdered body; the police arrest Trevor because they found the murder weapon contained his prints. Neither Persia nor her aunt believes Trevor is guilty and Persia sets out to prove it, almost losing her life in the process.

India Ink has written a clever, often humorous and definitely complex amateur sleuth mystery. The protagonist is a martial arts expert who is a very feminine, feisty and independent woman. The murder victim had many enemies due to her abrasive and cruel attitude so it is impossible for readers to figure out who killed her until the author chooses to reveal that person's identity. SCENT OF THE GRAVE is a very disciplined and unusual mystery, the start of what smells to be a winning series.

Harriet Klausner