Green and Pleasant Land: A Fran Harman Mystery

In Cutler’s enjoyable sixth Fran Harman mystery (after 2014’s Double Fault), newly retired Fran, a former detective chief superintendent, and her new husband, Mark Turner, also retired from the force, volunteer to assist the West Mercia police in a 20-year-old cold case involving a mortally ill baby left alone in a car parked on a lonely stretch of road by Wyre Forest. The infant’s mother and an older brother haven’t been seen since and are presumed dead. The local police, challenged by budget issues and riven by internal rivalries, resent the intrusion of two civilians. But working together, they uncover discrepancies, ill-informed assumptions made by the original investigators, and outright deceptions from witnesses in the old case. The procedural business moves slowly at times, with a great deal of emphasis on the miserable weather and unforgiving geography. The interactions between blissful newlyweds Fran and Mark will please the romantically inclined. The surprising conclusion definitely satisfies. (Apr.)