The Monks Hood Murders: A 1920s Murder Mystery with Heathcliff Lennox

Early in Menuhin’s lighthearted fifth mystery featuring Heathcliff Lennox (after 2020’s Death in Damascus), Lennox, a former WWI pilot, is consulted by Father Ambrose, the abbot of Yorkshire’s Monks Hood Abbey. Father Ambrose is unsettled by the deathbed confession of Sir Clarence Calderstone, the abbey’s benefactor, who was mortally hurt in a mysterious accident. The abbot tells Lennox that the dying knight mumbled “he will come” and “she must not have it”; then Calderstone gave the abbot the key to a strongbox containing a codex, a rare book of herbal medicines, from which he suggested the abbey could profit. The appearance of Calderstone’s previously unknown widow complicates his legacy, and, unfortunately for Monks Hood’s future, the codex is stolen, a crime followed by several murders. Lennox, aided by his friend Swift, a former chief inspector, endeavors to get at the truth. Menuhin makes the hunky but self-effacing Lennox an endearing lead. Followers of Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness books will be charmed. (Self-published)