Death at the Emerald: A Lady Frances Ffolkes Mystery

In Koreto’s unremarkable third Edwardian mystery featuring suffragist Lady Frances Ffolkes (after 2016’s Death Among Rubies), Lady Beatrice Torrence, who knew Frances’s late parents, learns that Frances has gained a reputation as a private detective and decides to ask for help locating her missing daughter, Louisa. In 1875, Louisa, then 20, fell in love with the life of the theater, which led her father to plan to ship her off to India to find a husband among the British officers stationed there. Instead, Louisa ran away from home, leaving only a note stating that she would pursue a career on the stage. More than three decades later, Lady Beatrice implores Frances to find out what happened to Louisa, and Frances, aided by her laconic maid, Mallow, tries to pick up the cold trail. Such a plot choice instantly makes the prospect of a successful resolution improbable, and Koreto fails to rise to challenge. In addition, Frances is more a type than a fully realized character. Agent: Cynthia Zigmund, Second City Publishing Services. (Nov.)