cover image The Moonlit Door: A Nick Lawrence Mystery

The Moonlit Door: A Nick Lawrence Mystery

Deryn Lake. Severn, $28.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8437-4

A particularly dark mystery distinguishes the pseudonymous Lake’s outstanding third Rev. Nick Lawrence whodunit (after 2013’s Dead on Cue). Nick’s quiet Sussex village is gearing up for a medieval fair, whose proceeds will benefit the steeple-preservation fund. The festivities are enhanced by the presence of a minor celebrity, singer Patsy Quinn, who quickly attracts the attention of the single cleric. But things turn grim when the corpse of a young boy is found, bound to a maypole and transfixed with an arrow. The cruelty of the murder stuns the community, and Nick and his friend on the force, Insp. Dominic Tennant, search desperately for the killer before another life is claimed. Lake (historical novelist Dinah Lampitt) keeps things creepy, with suggestions that the murder was committed as part of a blood sacrifice to ensure a robust harvest. The identity of the murderer is a stunner, even though clues pointing toward it are planted fairly throughout. (Mar.)