The eighth Trish Maguire mystery (after 2005's Gagged and Bound
) finds the intrepid London barrister once again sympathizing with a suspected killer. This time it's sculptor Sam Foundling, Trish's long-ago client, who reappears in her life just before his pregnant wife, Cecilia Mayford, is brutally slain in his studio. Trish's defense of Sam and inclusion of him in her Christmas plans puts her on the outs with her friend Chief Insp. Caro Lyalt, who must find the killer to redeem the tarnished reputation of the police. The small-world aspects pile on when Trish's long-term boyfriend George, a solicitor, learns that his firm is working on a project that involved both Trish and the murdered woman. The blustery depictions of wintertime London and heartbreaking domestic strife will still leave readers shivering and glad for another one of Cooper's trademark warm and happy endings. (Mar.)
