A Pleasure to Do Death with You: A DI Christy Kennedy Mystery

A trove of pop music lore enriches Charles’s leisurely 10th procedural featuring Ulster Det. Insp. Christy Kennedy (after 2008’s The Beautiful Sound of Silence). When investment banker Patrick Mylan is found hanging from his belt in his well-appointed home, is it suicide, accidental asphyxiation due to autoeroticism, or a cleverly planned murder? Since some outraged investors might have had strong motives for the killing, Kennedy’s unfailingly polite and methodical team fan out to question numerous persons of interest: an accountant, a songwriter, a housekeeper, and, of course, Mylan’s lover of the moment. All are shocked, saddened, and well-alibied. A bit of luck and an astonishing clue lead Kennedy to San Francisco, where a door opens into an entirely new mystery with engrossing twists of its own. Haunted by a broken romance, bewildered by a new one, the reserved and courtly Kennedy proves irresistible to women, much to his (and the reader’s) delight. (May)