The Lifeline

Mayhew’s leisurely sixth Village mystery (after 2016’s Bitter Poison) focuses on the inhabitants of Frog End, England, many of whom have settled into quiet retirement. Much of the narrative dwells on the meetings of the Frog End Ladies’ Group (“Not a soul under sixty-five and the speaker forgot to turn up”), preparations for the village fete (“The committee meetings were very long and very tedious”), musings on the benefits of gardening therapy, and memories of past village murders. Ruth Harvey, owner of the village manor, earns a bit of cash by propagating plants in the estate’s dilapidated greenhouses. Her husband, Tom, the local doctor, decides gardening therapy will be just the ticket for some of his patients, who include a hypochondriac, a wheelchair-bound teenager, and a bored retiree. A murder doesn’t occur until well over halfway through the book, which allows Mayhew plenty of time to show the disagreeable victim really had it coming. Detection is minimal. Cozy readers more interested in daffodils than detection will best appreciate this one. (June)