A Justified Murder

In bestseller Deveraux’s entertaining sequel to 2018’s A Willing Murder, Kate Medlar is happier than she has ever been since moving in with her aunt, Sara Medlar, and her aunt’s ex-lover’s grandson, the incredibly handsome Jack Wyatt, in Lachlan, Fla. Though the trio recently solved a multiple murder, they’re determined not to get involved in another case, even when Janet Beeson, a lonely widow, is found poisoned, stabbed, and shot in her home. This proves difficult when everyone in Lachlan, including the sheriff, insists on coming to them with new information. Soon, the trio will discover that the whole town knows more than they’re saying, and Kate, Sara, and Jack are the only ones who can piece together all the stories. What they uncover is a conspiracy that runs deeper than they could have imagined, and involves everything from the local crochet competition to the apparent suicide of Janet’s best friend. Kate and Jack’s undeniable chemistry helps compensate for one-dimensional characters and sometimes tedious subplots. Fans of Deveraux’s romance novels will be particularly charmed. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media. (Feb.)