Murder in Argelès: A Third-Culture Kid Mystery

Those looking for an offbeat alternative to conventional crime dramas will enjoy Nelson’s suspenseful second Third-Culture Kid mystery featuring freelance tech writer Annie Young (after 2010’s Murder in Caleb’s Landing). At the end of a business trip to Zurich, Annie, an American who grew up partly in Europe, is looking forward to getting back to Argelès-sur-mer, France, where she has a small apartment, and meeting her handsome priest friend, Père Yves. But when she enters Yves’s church, she discovers his body crumpled on the floor. Annie reluctantly turns for help to her ex-boyfriend, Roger Perrin, the town’s police chief. When Roger returns with Annie to the church, however, Yves’s body has disappeared. Still, blood on a broken angel statue suggests foul play. Nelson elegantly weaves historical fact and fiction in a whodunit whose heroine discovers more than just the guilty party. (Dec.)