Date with Death: A Dales Detective Mystery

This series launch from Chapman, a pseudonym for Julia Stagg (the Fogas Chronicles), delivers an engaging twist on the lonely-hearts killer motif. Since her divorce, Delilah Metcalfe has struggled to keep her web design and online dating businesses afloat in rural Bruncliffe, Yorkshire. After she leases out an office space, she learns that her new tenant is Samson O’Brien, her deceased brother’s best friend, who abruptly left Bruncliffe for London years ago. Despite animosity from Delilah and other locals, who view his sudden return with suspicion, Samson opens a detective agency, and his first client leads him to a series of seemingly accidental deaths connected to Delilah’s speed-dating events. Gentle humor and an evocative sense of the Yorkshire Dales landscape compensate for an implausibly prolific killer with hackneyed motives. Chapman barely hints at the potential for romance between Samson and Delilah, and their developing friendship and suggestions of coming scandals in Bruncliffe should leave readers eager for the sequel. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Mar.)