Death Scene: A Henry Johnstone Mystery

Set in 1928, Adams’s elegantly written sequel to The Murder Book takes intelligent, introspective Det. Chief Insp. Henry Johnstone and his genial sergeant, Mickey Hitchens, to Shoreham-by-Sea on England’s south coast to investigate the murder of Cissie Rowe, a rising star in the film industry. Cissie was found dead in the bedroom of her modest home in Bungalow Town, an isolated Shoreham neighborhood that’s a veritable dormitory for the nearby film studio. When one of her lovestruck admirers turns up brutally murdered a few days later in his home just up the beach from Cissie’s, Johnstone and Hitchens are certain there’s a connection. As they dig deeper into the past of the beautiful young actress, they discover disturbing elements that have shaped her life in surprising ways. Adams smoothly integrates information about the police force between the wars (pay, hierarchy, development of forensic science) into the well-crafted plot. (July)