A Study in Gold: An Oxford Dogwalkers’ Mystery

Dalton’s discursive third Oxford Dogwalkers’ mystery (after 2016’s Written in Red) opens with a chilling prologue describing the drowning murder of a young woman caught up in a raucous, drunken party. Chapter one finds Oxford University administrator Anna Hopkins, who’s still coming to terms with the murder of her family 16 years earlier, and her dogwalking friends, Tansy Lavelle and Isabella Salzman, participating in a murder mystery weekend at a country house. Their mystery, one of 10 that weekend, is titled “The Last Train from Munich” and is set just before the outbreak of WWII. On the final morning, the body of the woman in the prologue is found floating in an ornamental pond. A sea of backstory about Anna and her traumas follows, as does her dog’s backstory, and the reader is left to wonder how this all relates to the murder. Seeking closure, Anna decides to visit the auction house that her family used to own—and then the mystery really begins, and it involves Nazis, stolen paintings, and born-again Christians. Those expecting closure won’t be disappointed. (Sept.)