Dagger Award–winner Cleverly’s third Laetitia Talbot mystery falls short of the high standard set by the first in this historical series, The Tomb of Zeus
(2007). Talbot, a fiercely independent amateur sleuth in the spirit of Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher, is plunged into international intrigue after her godfather, Daniel Thorndon, is stabbed to death in Burgundy in 1926. Before dying, Thorndon managed to mail a coded postcard to Talbot, using a cipher the two had shared when she was much younger. Aided by an improbable bodyguard, a military chaplain who served in WWI, Talbot journeys to France, where she uses her archeological skills to link up with a dig that may enable her to solve the mystery of Thorndon’s death. Stock characters abound, like an enigmatic but handsome French nobleman, rather than the original creations who populate Cleverly’s Joe Sandilands historical series (Ragtime in Simla
, etc.). (Oct.)
