The Body in the Boat

Mackenzie’s superior third mystery set in Romney Marsh (after 2018’s The Body in the Ice) blends a fair-clued whodunit with an accurate depiction of late-18th-century England. At a dinner party at the home of justice of the peace Frederick Maudsley, the Rev. Marcus Hardcastle meets Maudsley’s son-in-law, Hector Munro, who, like the JP, is a partner in a local bank, the East Weald and Ashford. Hardcastle overhears Maudsley and Munro discussing keeping something a secret from “the Grasshopper,” but thinks little more of that conversation until Munro turns up dead in a beached boat, shot in the stomach. Hardcastle later discovers that the Grasshopper was a reference to a London bank connected with the East Weald and Ashford—and that the dead man was consorting with one of the smuggling rings operating out of the area. The plot thickens when Hardcastle finds indications that Munro’s involvement with criminals may have been part of a scheme to shore up the local bank’s resources. Fans of Imogen Robertson’s historicals will be pleased. A[em]gents: Heather Adams and Mike Bryan, HMA Literary (U.K.). (Mar.) [/em]