Lock 13: A Chris Honeysett Mystery

At the outset of British author Helton’s droll seventh Chris Honeysett mystery (after 2014’s Indelible), artist-cum-detective Chris and an insurance company officer working on a fraud case meet in Bath’s Pump Room. Henry Blinkhorn supposedly drowned on a fishing trip six years earlier and his widow collected a payment of more than £1 million. A recent photo published in a fishing magazine, however, shows that Blinkhorn is still alive. Chris stands to earn a very tidy fee if he locates the man. Later, Chris goes to teach a life drawing class and discovers that his nude model, Verity Lake, has vanished. When he learns that Verity may have taken off on a local canal, he borrows a boat to search for her. Meanwhile, Chris’s lady friend, Annis Jordan, is away fulfilling a commission to paint a gigantic mural inside the pool house of an eminent record producer. All the disparate plot lines somehow converge in the madcap finale. Those who don’t mind colossal coincidences, vertiginous leaps of logic, and improbable situations will enjoy this romp. (Apr.)