Maid of Murder: An India Hayes Mystery

Flower’s breezy debut introduces a quirky heroine—India Hayes, a librarian at Martin College in Stripling, Ohio, who’s also an artist. India agrees, yet again, to be a bridesmaid, this time for her childhood friend, Olivia Blocken, for whom her brother, Mark, an assistant professor at Martin, still carries a torch. After Olivia left Stripling for college elsewhere, Mark suffered a breakdown and buried himself in mathematics. Not wanting to upset Mark, India doesn’t tell him she’s a bridesmaid in his lost love’s wedding. When someone pushes Olivia to her death in the college fountain and Mark becomes the most likely murder suspect, India turns amateur sleuth in an effort to prove her brother’s innocence. Warring cats and distinctive characters, like India’s “everything Irish” landlady and her bizarre ’60s activist parents, will appeal to cozy fans. (June)