cover image Kindness Can Kill

Kindness Can Kill

Janie Bolitho. St. Martin's Press, $18.95 (190pp) ISBN 978-0-312-10488-7

Murderous passions simmer under the deceptively calm surface of an English town in this fine mystery debut. Freelance writer Julia Henderson is found battered to death soon after attending a local wedding. Solitary and beautiful, Julia had been ostracized by local women who feared for their marriages, save for Susan Barfoot, the vicar's neurotic wife. A fair number of suspects surface, most of them guests at the wedding. They include neighbor Gerry Clayton, forced to resign from a teaching job because of an affair with a pupil; the bridegroom's father, Graham Sutcliffe, who had apparently shared the murdered woman's favors with his son; and her former husband, a professor who was still in love with her. The case strikes close to home for chief detective inspector Ian Roper of the Rickenham CID when his alienated young son Mark, who met the victim through the vicar's son, becomes a vital witness. As Roper and his staff carefully sift through clues, initial suspects are cleared, finally leaving the shocking truth. Bolitho has crafted a taut, psychologically compelling mystery. (Feb.)