cover image Mystery in Prior’s Ford

Mystery in Prior’s Ford

Evelyn Hood. Severn, $28.95 (214p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8091-8

The fifth entry in Hood’s series set in Prior’s Ford (Scandal in Prior’s Ford, etc., all under the pseudonym Eve Houston) offers a warm and vivid portrait of life in the quaint Scottish village. Hector Ralston-Kerr, the laird of Prior’s Ford, and his wife have hired garden center employee Ginny Whitelaw to restore the gardens of their massive estate to their original splendor; the Prior’s Ford Drama Club has decided to stage Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest; and a popular cookbook author and her overworked policeman husband have moved into a local cottage. The biggest news is 50ish Clarissa Ramsey and 30ish Alastair Marshall appearing openly as a couple, until one of the drama club’s actors is found strangled with Lady Bracknell’s purple feather boa. It’s up to Amy Rose, an American visitor who aids the police, to bring the murder investigation to a satisfactory conclusion. (Feb.)