Come, Gentle Night: A Natalie Marsh Mystery

Black’s suspenseful fifth Natalie Marsh mystery (after 2020’s Bound in Shallows) gives the psychologist a cold case to crack. Natalie is a guest at a fund-raising gala for the Daffodil House Women’s Shelter, in Ohneka, N.Y., organized by her intern, Violet Kirby. Violet is worried that she erred in drawing up the guest list, which includes her cousins Rowan and Brett Montrose, as well as law-enforcement officers. That could be a combustible combination, since Brett was suspected of murdering his wife, Serena, four years earlier, but the Montrose family believe the police framed him. Since Serena had been having an affair with a cop, the Montroses dismissed the damning evidence, such as scratches on Brett’s arm and his skin cells found under his dead wife’s fingernails, as having been planted. The unresolved case is revived after Rowan gets into an altercation at the event with an officer, prompting Natalie to tackle the question of who really killed Serena. The fair but surprising solution is satisfying. Black manages to make her lead’s involvement in another whodunit plausible. (Nov.)