False Fire: A Bea Abbot Agency Mystery

Heley’s appealing 11th Abbot Agency mystery (after 2016’s False Wall) opens at a party in a posh London neighborhood. It’s putatively for two 10-year-olds—champagne for the adults and piles of presents for the birthday girls, who are the emotionally neglected children of first marriages. Bea, who runs the Abbot Agency, which provides domestic services, is there as the guest of her longtime friend Sir Leon Holland. After the girls have gone to bed, she’s disconcerted to notice that there are 13 adults sitting at the dinner table. Shortly thereafter, a fire breaks out, and Bea and Lord Morton, the grandfather of one of the girls, race upstairs to find the children’s room billowing with smoke. The blaze is blamed on the girls, but Bea steps up to defend them and uncover the guilty party. The incident turns even uglier with the subsequent deaths of three of the party guests. The capable, quick-witted Bea handles the insufferable suspects with Mary Poppins–like aplomb. It’s a pleasure to spend time in her company. (Apr.)