cover image To the Manor Dead: A Janet’s Planet Mystery

To the Manor Dead: A Janet’s Planet Mystery

Sebastian Stuart, Midnight Ink (www.midnightinkbooks.com), $14.95 paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-7387-2293-1

This deliciously oddball first in a new series from Stuart (The Hour Between) introduces witty Janet Petrocelli, who finds high crimes and nasty misdemeanors thrive in even the most bucolic landscapes. After leaving a stressful psychotherapy practice in the Big Apple, Janet settles in the Hudson Valley’s sleepy Sawyerville. Hoping for a peaceful life with her pets, she opens Janet’s Planet, a collectibles shop, and starts dating a laid-back landscape architect who operates “on Rip Van Winkle time.” When Janet agrees to inspect some antiques at Westward Farm for an elderly local heiress, Daphne Livingston, Janet discovers the rambling place is creepier than Grey Gardens, and Daphne’s feuding family makes Little Edie and Big Edie look almost Rockwellesque in comparison. Janet can’t resist turning amateur sleuth after finding Daphne hanging from the rafters of her octagonal folly. Readers will be left wondering what fun she’ll get into next time. (Oct.)