Murder On The Marlow Belle

I do enjoy reading Robert Thorogood's Marlow Murder Club Mysteries, even if the actresses who play the characters on TV look nothing like their descriptions in the books.  And speaking of watching things on TV, the British Acorn TV streaming service's Canal Boat Diaries provided some welcome background for the goings-on in Murder On The Marlow Belle (#1,740).  The eponymous boat is the site of a seemingly unsolvable murder.  Too many suspects, and too many incriminating clues!

When Verity Beresford contacts Judith Potts about her missing husband, Judith cannot understand at first why she's come to her door.  A call notifying Verity that her husband's body has been found by the river confirms Judith's reputation as Marlow's premier crime solver as she's witness to the call.  But have she Suzie and Becks, her confederates, finally met their match?

Oliver was the flamboyant leader of the local amateur theatrical group.  Many people had a motive to dislike, even hate him.  But they were in the middle of staging The Importance of Being Ernest and the show must go on.  What better way for Judith to get to know the prime suspects than to become a member of the cast?

Again, Mr. Thorogood waits until almost the final page to reveal the killer, and it's good fun along the way.  The gloom and doom Suzie promised for Judith from her tarot card reading hangs over the plot, but it's the final element that will pull readers into the next book.  Can't wait!