Death on the Lizard

Set in Cornwall in 1903, Paige's 12th Edwardian mystery (after 2005's Death at Blenheim Palace ) offers the usual mix of decent writing and period atmosphere. Charles, Lord Sheridan, amateur sleuth for the British movers and shakers, discreetly probes a series of accidents and fatalities that have plagued the nascent efforts of Guglielmo Marconi to establish his wireless telegraph company. Sheridan is faced with a short deadline, as the Prince and Princess of Wales are due to attend a demonstration of Marconi's new technology. His wife, novelist and independent spirit Lady Kate Sheridan, takes an atypically subordinate role in identifying the culprit behind the industrial sabotage. There's not much of a puzzle to uncover, and readers will find a deeper look at the same era in David Dickinson's Lord Francis Powerscourt series (Death of a Chancellor , etc.). Paige is the pseudonym of the husband-and-wife writing team of Susan Wittig Albert and Bill Albert. (Feb.)