Murder Through the English Post

In Ellicott’s leisurely sixth mystery set in the English village of Walmsley Parva in the early 1920s (after 2021’s Murder in an English Glade), someone is making a great deal of mischief in the village by sending out the most distressing anonymous letters. When the new doctor’s wife attempts suicide after receiving one of these nasty missives, private enquiry agents Beryl Helliwell, “a confirmed adventuress,” and her slightly less exuberant friend, village magistrate Edwina Davenport, investigate. They soon discover that practically everyone in Walmsley Parva has received such a letter, including a pillar of the local garden club, whose subsequent death makes it imperative that they find the culprit. Meanwhile, Edwina works on her novel featuring cowboy-gunslinger Bart Dalton, and both women embark upon their new role as spokeswomen for a line of convenience foods for Colonel Kimberly’s Condiment Company, as their profession makes them “the very model of modern womanhood.” Never mind the slow pace and an easily solvable mystery. This charming outing succeeds as pure escapism. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Aug.)