The Hotel Westend

In Lynch-Harris’s first novel, a charming homage to the classic mystery, a secretive host summons a number of people to the Hotel Westend in the town of Westend Bay in an unspecified U.S. state. An outlier among the guests is Elsie Maitland, whose meandering voyage in search of adventure results in her unexpected stay at the hotel. The other guests, a pompous millionaire and his newlywed bride, and a grim Mrs. Iradene Hartwell and her younger sister, Marian, are connected by a murder that occurred at the site of the hotel 20 years previous; all were considered suspects at the time. After a maid is poisoned and a reverend also called to the hotel is murdered, it seems the past is replaying itself and a sergeant sequesters the guests. Elsie excitedly consults with her famed mystery writer sister via letters and begins to conduct her own investigation. Lynch-Harris playfully indulges genre tropes, raising readers’ suspicions equally among multiple characters as Elsie plays sleuth and finds romance with a journalist who has his own connection to the crimes. [em](BookLife) [/em]