Call the Dead Again

In her 11th mystery (after A Word After Dying) featuring British sleuthing duo Meredith Mitchell and her policeman lover, Alan Markby, Granger once again delivers a polished whodunit. A striking young woman hitchhikes her way to Bamford from London, and Mitchell gives her a lift to her destination: Tudor Lodge, the home of lawyer and European Union ""mandarin"" Andrew Penhallow. While his wife, Carla, is upstairs with a migraine, Penhallow confronts his unwelcome visitor, Kate Drago, alone. After stowing the young hitchhiker in a nearby seedy hotel, Penhallow returns home. Later that night, a knock at the back door brings Penhallow outside, where he is viciously attacked and murdered. Markby, who went to school with Penhallow, is called to the scene, and the investigation begins. Was Penhallow the victim of a terrorist attack? Or did Drago murder him? What is the young woman's connection with the victim and his family? Granger offers only a small cast of possible suspects, but manages to sustain the suspense of Mitchell's and Markby's investigation until the novel's tidy and believable conclusion. (May)