The Missing Diamond Murder (A Black & Dod Mystery)
Third in Janes’ series featuring Fran Black and Tom Dod, this outing features more of Fran than Tom. In England in 1930, Fran Black is in an unenviable position. She’s trying to get a divorce from her husband, who has not only left her for another woman but got that woman pregnant. An anonymous letter to her lawyer accuses her of a relationship with her sleuthing partner Tom, a married man himself. Archaic divorce laws mean “divorces cannot be granted for the mutual convenience of both parties. There has to be one guilty party and another who is completely innocent.” Although Fran and Tom may both wish they were free, they are innocent, and there can be no hint of impropriety. Fran removes herself from his orbit, their mutual membership in the Robert Barnaby Society, by going to Devon to investigate the suspicious death of old Mr. Edgerton and the subsequent disappearance of his diamond.
Fran is welcomed by the Edgertons, who make her feel at home, and each one is so charming that I knew that none of them could be the guilty party. Fran is adept at sleuthing, persisting until she finds the missing diamond, and the family is so happy that they don’t regard their grandfather’s death as suspicious any longer and Fran returns home. Of course that isn’t the end of it. Fran doesn’t believe that an elderly man wheeled himself uphill and then fell off a cliff.
This is a gentle mystery. Characters are likeable, and when they’re unlikeable, they’re entertaining. The only pang of fear occurs whenever Fran is alone with a man, be it Eddie, the second Edgerton son, who proclaims his love, or Tom, who makes a few appearances. Such was the hypocrisy of divorce law in the 1930s.
