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HIGH MARKS FOR MURDER
by Rebecca Kent
Berkley, June 2008
200 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0425222047


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Thirty-year-old Boer War widow Meredith Llewellyn is the headmistress of the expensive Bellehaven Finishing School, is located in an old manor house in the Cotswolds in England. It is 1905. The four teachers at the school, Mrs Llewllyn, who teaches fine arts, Kathleen Duncan, home management, Felicity Cross, literature and language, and Esmeralda (Essie) Pickard, social graces, are in charge of fifty girls from the cream of British society.

Tom, the gardener, finds Kathleen's body in her beloved garden, wearing the clothes she had on the day before. He runs to tell Mrs. Llewellyn, who calls for the police. The local bobby, PC Cyril Shipman, is a man very much of his time and declares it an accidental death, even though a large sawn off tree limb with blood on it is found nearby. After all, what was a woman doing out after dark, alone?

Meredith sees the ghostly figure of a woman pointing to the flower bed. She is convinced it is that of Kathleen Duncan, but thinks that she is pointing to the weeds in the bed. She has the gardener take care of them but continues to see the ghost. She finally realizes that the spirit is trying to tell her something and follows the clues to the solution to the murder.

Rebecca Kent is Kate Kingsbury (Doreen Roberts Hight), who currently has two other series running, the Manor House mysteries set in England during WWII, and the Pennyfoot Hotel series set in Edwardian England. This is the first book in another very cozy series set in the Edwardian period, when the struggle for women's suffrage was beginning to make headlines. Kent makes a bit of social commentary when the maids take off to a rally in town without permission but otherwise, this is just another cozy. It is very well done and definitely for those who like their mysteries on the lighter side.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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