cover image Death at the Wedding Feast: 
A John Rawlings Mystery

Death at the Wedding Feast: A John Rawlings Mystery

Deryn Lake. Severn, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8086-4

Set in 1768, the pseudonymous Lake’s excellent 14th mystery featuring real-life apothecary John Rawlings (after 2009’s Death and the Black Pyramid) defers the violence the title promises until relatively late in the book, but patient readers will be amply rewarded. Rawlings has just managed to carbonate water, an innovative process that promises to provide another source of income. Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to joining his mistress, Elizabeth di Lorenzi, who’s expecting their first child, in Devon. When Rawlings explains to his psychic young daughter, Rose, why she must remain in London, she warns him that a “horrible old woman in a brown dress and bonnet” poses a mortal threat, a prediction borne out by the bloodshed that mars a May-December wedding in Devon. The unexpectedly brutal murder serves to showcase Rawlings’s deductive prowess. Lake (historical novelist Dinah Lampitt) imbues her lead with equal parts smarts and compassion. (Dec.)