Guilty as Sin

In British author Cutler’s dramatic seventh Lina Townend mystery (after 2013’s Guilt Edged), the Kent antiques dealer and restorer has loads on her plate. Emotionally, she’s caught between Griff Tripp, her mentor and faux grandfather, who wants her to be financially secure, and her father, Lord Elham, a cleaned-up reprobate. On a trip to Dartmoor, Lina sees robbers vandalizing a church. When she interferes, she gains some dangerous enemies. Back in Kent, Lina befriends a sick old woman who’s not being properly cared for, and that draws an attack as well. Several police officers regularly pop up, one an ex-boyfriend with a secret. After her weekly Pilates class one day, she goes out with two other young women, one of whom is inordinately nosy about Lina’s professional activities. On the way home, she’s attacked more than once, but nothing stops the doughty Lina. Unsurprisingly, a lot of these incidents turn out to be related. Cutler neatly resolves them all at the end. [em](Dec.) [/em]