Death on the Rocks

In his second Lucy Trimble mystery (after Death of a Sunday Writer), Wright--author of the popular Charlie Salter series--tests his unseasoned detective with a couple of perplexing cases. Canadian sleuth Lucy is hired by well-to-do Greta Golden to find out more about a man who is hanging around asking questions about her. When Lucy goes undercover and meets him, she finds out he's a fellow detective and gets him to reveal that he was hired by a British law firm to investigate Greta's background, as she may be an heir to a recently deceased and wealthy man. Greta has always thought she was an only child with no living relatives, so she is intrigued to learn she may have family members in England. She rehires Lucy, this time to fill in the gaps in her parents' histories. In Britain, Lucy exhumes an old story of two sisters and the man they loved, a tale of jealousy and murder. A subplot involving the odd behavior of a drugstore owner adds a riddle to this otherwise straightforward mystery. Though Wright's descriptions of Canada and England aren't exceptional, his well-rounded characters, lyric if low-key prose and subtle humor transforms Lucy's burgeoning caseload into a piece of satisfying suspense. (June)