The Painted Lady

By Edward Marston

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This is Restoration comedy, the eighth whodunit in the popular Redmayne series. Christopher Redmayne, the young architect, is making his reputation by building new houses for the wealthy in post-Great Fire London. This time it’s a fashionable French artist who is building a home, and Christopher is delighted to design his house as it will be a very lovely building. The artist is pleased too, the money for the house comes from painting the portrait of the most beautiful woman in town. And so the problems begin. The lovely Araminta is newly and happily married to Sir Martin Culthorpe, but that does not prevent the more unpleasant of her many admirers from plotting to seize her for themselves. When her husband is murdered and the artist accused, Christopher and his constable friend, Jonathan Bale, team up again to find the real villain.

This is a thoroughly entertaining romp, an easy read with nice pieces of period dialogue, amusing characters and a puzzle to solve. Just the book for an evening’s read by a snug fire when it’s pouring down outside.