The Burning of Rosemont Abbey
The Burning of Rosemont Abbey, following in the well-traveled footsteps of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, is a mystery set in a quaint English village in post-war England. The village of Wilbeth Green is home to all of the vibrant, quirky characters found in all of the best cozy PBS mysteries.
Louisa Everly is a twenty-something socialite who has lost both of her parents and who was raised, with her brother Paul, by her father’s brother, Uncle Archie and his wife, Aunt Agatha. The novel opens with the devastating fire that destroys her father’s old vicarage of Rosemont Abbey. Louisa has fought with her brother Paul the very evening that the abbey burns and that Paul vanishes. Of course, Paul, who despised his uncle and aunt and who has a disreputable reputation in the village, is blamed by everyone for the arson. We know, and Louisa suspects, that there’s more to this story than people want to believe. Even though her relationship with Paul is at its low point, she refuses to believe that Paul could commit such an act of vengeance. To get to the truth, she must form an alliance with Inspector Malcolm Sinclair at risk to her own life.
Author Stephens checks every box in this novel. It is a mystery with many twists and turns. I defy any reader to guess the culprit. Louisa makes a charismatic heroine. And though we can anticipate the sparks ultimately flying between her and the handsome inspector Sinclair, the build-up is not rushed. The elderly Miss Watson and the butler Fernsby are only two of the colorful characters who pop up to enrich the story. In teacher Naomi Stephens, Agatha Christie has found an apt pupil.
