Agony Hill

A New England detective investigates a farmer’s death while concealing his own dark past in this slow-burning series launch from Stewart Taylor (the Maggie D’Arcy Mysteries). In the 1960s, Franklin Warren leaves Boston for sleepy Bethany, Vt., to take a job as a state detective. His first case is the death of Hugh Weber, an overbearing “back-to-the-lander” who came to Bethany from New York City 15 years earlier. Warren’s colleagues think Weber died by suicide, but the detective suspects it might be murder, owing to how unpopular he was in town. While interviewing Weber’s many enemies, Warren untangles the private, interconnected dramas of Bethany’s citizens, and broods on the tragedy that moved him to leave Boston. Meanwhile, widow Alice Bellows, a former spy, keeps her eye on Warren while investigating the theft of bullets from Bethany’s general store. Stewart Taylor nails the rural setting, and Warren is a promising lead, but some readers may grow frustrated as the narrative detours into the backstories of its large cast. Still, there’s enough intrigue here to keep patient mystery lovers on board for the sequel. (Aug.)