cover image Wed and Buried

Wed and Buried

Mary Daheim. Avon Books, $6.99 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-380-78520-9

The prolific Daheim's latest bed and breakfast mystery, finds b&b proprietor Judith Flynn hosting a horde of new in-laws for her son's wedding. But as luck would have it, Judith believes she's seen a murder outside the hotel reception site. Judith, who treats her b&b like a hobby, takes a more proprietary interest in the investigation and annoys the investigator in charge, her husband, homicide detective Joe Flynn. Luckily clues contrive to drop into Judith's lap because, generally speaking, she doesn't seem competent enough to find them herself. She ignores dark clouds in her own family while she chases after hunches with a cousin who--with five children, a husband and a job--one presumes would have other things to do. All in all, neither the characters nor the construction of the plot seems believable or coherent. (Feb.)