The Body in the Transept by Jeanne M Dams. I found The Body in the Transept . . . no, let me rephrase that, I found Jeanne M Dams' mystery through a useful service the Spokane Public Library provides through their catalog (see yesterday's post.) I had not heard of Dams, though she has been writing since the mid-90s. And I'm glad to hear of her now as this, her first Dorothy Martin mystery, is quite good.
Dorothy is an American, a widow who has moved to a cathedral town in England. She knows a handful of people from the days when she accompanied her husband as he did research at the local red brick university. But now she feels a bit isolated, is not really making friends, and is still grieving for her beloved husband.
After midnight services at the cathedral a man who was seated next to her during the service offers to walk her home and while he is off to find her coat and scarf she stumbles over a corpse, in the north transept. The man turns out to be Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, a widower.
At first Dorothy talks to her acquaintances about the murder - it of course turns out to be a murder. But she soon finds the likely suspects are among her few acquaintances in town and she begins to dig deeper into the case in hopes of finding that these people have alibis or that their motives are weak.
Dorothy Martin has a good deal of charm and is clever and discerning. As she decides to stay in England at the end of the book we readers feel confident that she is beginning to make friends in her new home. Let's hope not too many of them are killed off in the forthcoming books in this series.
2012 No 23
I'm not familiar with this author, but I like the sound of this book!
Posted by: jenclair | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:59 AM