Wedding Rows
World War II rationing makes a wedding difficult, but the residents of the small English village of Sitting Marsh pool their resources to give the bride and groom a traditional send-off. Unfortunately, no one can find the knife to cut the cake until after the reception, when it’s discovered embedded in the chest of a dead wedding guest. Lady Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton, lady of the manor and amateur sleuth, must solve the murder and subsequent kidnappings.
This mystery, which is the next to last in the Manor House series, is an entertaining little bit of fun, and is as well-written as the others in the series. Though some of the secondary characters are rather two-dimensional, the main characters are well-drawn and Kingsbury’s setting is perfect. There are more than enough suspects to keep the reader guessing about the identity of the murderer, and there’s also a bit of humor thrown in. The relationship between Lady Elizabeth and her love interest, American Air Force Captain Earl Monroe, adds a depth to the story and will have readers coming back for the next and final installment in the series to see how things play out between them.
