The Body in Bodega Bay: A Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler Mystery

Draine and Hinden’s second outing for married couple Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler (after 2011’s Murder in Lascaux) offers evocative descriptions of the Northern Californian coastline and detailed insights into the unique world of Russian iconography. Nora and Toby, an art historian and an antique dealer, respectively, combine their expertise after Charlie Halloran, with whom Toby owned a gallery, is found murdered in a boat in Bodega Bay, the location of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. However, their investigations soon lead to an even greater mystery: the location of 15th-century icon painter Andrei Rublev’s long-rumored, long-missing personal copy of his famous painting, The Holy Trinity. Colorful characters like Barnes’s beautiful and newly pious sister, Angie, and affable college professor Al Miller keep the proceedings fresh and unpredictable. Although the book occasionally bogs down in minutiae, the unexpected but satisfying conclusion is worth the wait. (May)