The Young Widow

Chan's sprightly debut, a contemporary homage to Dorothy L. Sayers's classic Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, introduces an appealing pair of sleuths. Jack Gibbons, an ambitious Scotland Yard detective sergeant, investigates the fatal poisoning of successful businessman Geoffrey Berowne, aided by his best friend from university days, Phillip Bethancourt, who's a wealthy man-about-town with a nose for crime. The chief suspect is Berowne's attractive wife, Annette, whose previous two husbands, both much older than she, also died under odd circumstances. When Gibbons rather predictably starts falling for Annette, he seeks another solution to the murder, despite everything pointing to the young widow as the killer. Even if Gibbons and Bethancourt are hardly original as a detective duo, traditional English mystery devotees should look forward to their further adventures. Agent, Jennifer Jackson at DMLA. (Aug.)