A Tangled Thread

This baffling standalone from British author Fraser (The Unburied Past) deals sensitively with issues of family and relationships. In East Sussex, piano teacher Jill Lawrence is content to share a house with her grown daughter and her daughter’s family, though she misses her husband, a freelance photographer, who died in a suicide bombing in Egypt the previous year. In Scotland, Beth Monroe, a childless widow, has become attached to her new lodger, Johnnie Stewart, but she is dismayed when he disappears one day. After a week, Beth goes to the police, who show her a photograph of Johnnie and tell her he’s been stabbed to death. A third, seemingly unrelated plot line involves an extended family in North Yorkshire. Keeping track of all the characters can be a challenge, and frequent changes of locale make for choppy pacing. Still, Fraser does her usual fine job of planting red herrings and subtle clues to the puzzle’s solution as her well-crafted plot builds to a surprising conclusion. [em](Jan.) [/em]