cover image Whoever Has the Heart

Whoever Has the Heart

Jennie Melville. Minotaur Books, $19.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-312-11099-4

High-ranking English policewoman Charmian Daniels hopes to escape some of the pressures of her job in her newly purchased weekend cottage but finds murder and personal conflict follow her even to the village of Brideswell. There the social-climbing lover of a friend asks Charmian for help in a case in which he might be implicated. The police are looking for Chloe Devon, a young woman who disappeared the week before, right after she and the social climber had quarreled in a local restaurant. Charmian becomes more seriously involved when the young woman's torso is found buried in Brideswell's woods. Although she is not directly in charge, Charmian starts her own investigation, noting that the village has suffered a number of mysterious deaths in the recent past. At the same time, her relationship with her aristocratic lover Humphrey Kent deteriorates and she becomes attracted to the police officer in charge of the case. With fine-edged brushstrokes, Melville ( Footsteps in the Blood ) chronicles the intelligent, ambitious Charmian's continuing rise up the police ladder of success. (June)