Patricia Harwin, Slaying Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Slaying Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Patricia Harwin

Pocket, Mar 2005, $6.50, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0743482255

After Catherine Perry's husband Quinn dumped her for another woman, she packed her belongings and moved to Far Wychwood to reside near their daughter Emily, her son-in-law Peter, and her grandson Archie. When Quinn and his lover Janet come for a visit, Emily promises her mom to keep her dad away from her because Catherine wants nothing to do with her ex. Quinn and Catherine separately attend a dinner where Peter is to be named head of his department at Oxford.

The outgoing head names Edgar Stone to replace him leaving Peter very disappointed. When Catherine returns to the banquet room, she sees Peter standing over a dead Edgar. The police arrest Peter, feeling they have an airtight case after hearing a phone call Edgar allegedly made to the prime suspect. However, the case collapses when Edgar's wife is found dead with a suicide note in her handwriting saying she killed her husband. Catherine feels good for her daughter and grandson, but has some lingering doubts how the two deaths occurred.

Patricia Harwin has written a delightful British cozy that will appeal to fans of Ann Granger and Patricia Hall. Readers receive an insider's look at a small English village consisting of thirty cottages yet the heroine feels more at home here than back in the States where she used to live. The mystery is cleverly constructed so that Catherine's attempts to solve the case ring true as she stumbles from one incident to the next. Readers will seek out the previous Far Wychwood tale (see ARSON AND OLD LACE) and look forward for the next one.

Harriet Klausner