Death at the Boston Tea Party: A John Rawlings Mystery

At the start of Lake’s amiable if flawed 16th John Rawlings mystery (after 2014’s Death on the Rocks), the widowed British apothecary and his three children set sail in 1773 for the Colonies, where John is to consummate a business deal. When their ship founders off Penobscot Bay, John and his family, along with other survivors, make their slow way to Boston, where he’s among the crowd watching as the Sons of Liberty empty British tea chests into the harbor. The next morning, the body of Lady Demelza Conway, one of the shipwreck survivors, is found drowned nearby. When an acquaintance in the British military asks John to do some unofficial sleuthing, he discovers that the victim—born and raised in the Colonies though recently living in Britain—was involved in the uprising and that her checkered past yields a plethora of suspects. Lake ably mixes engaging series characters with cameos of colorful historical figures, though readers should be prepared for an unlikely resolution and anachronistic attitudes. (Aug.)