Best Be Prepared: A Nora Best Mystery

Florio’s enthralling fourth whodunit featuring Nora Best (after 2022’s Best Practices) finds the amateur sleuth, who has lived out of an Airstream trailer for years, hoping that she’s found a place to settle down in a small community on a peninsula in the Pacific Northwest. She’s taken a job as a seventh-grade teacher and started a romance with Luke, a guidance counselor rotating between several schools in the area. Her insights into human nature and keen observational skills are tapped again when, during a free period, one of her students finds a corpse with a head wound near school grounds. When Nora arrives on the scene, she’s joined by another student, Damien, who recognizes the body as his father’s. Damien’s father, Ward Austin, was an environmental activist who ran a nonprofit seeking to preserve the peninsula’s wildlife, a project that led to repeated clashes with other locals, including his ex-wife’s new spouse, Spencer Templeton, a developer who’s been pushing for approval for a new hotel. It’s up to Nora to cut through small-town gossip in pursuit of firm answers. Florio never stretches credibility with Nora’s talents, making it a treat to sleuth alongside her. This series merits a long run. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Assoc. (Oct.)