Cyanide with Christie

In Hyde’s so-so third Crime with the Classics mystery (after 2017’s Bloodstains with Brontë), Emily Cavanaugh has taken a sabbatical from her position as a literature professor after inheriting Windy Corner in Stony Beach, Ore., and has set about transforming the house into a writers’ retreat. Her first guests, who include Ian MacDonald, a noted novelist, and Oscar Lansing, a struggling academic, are housebound during a storm. Lt. Luke Richards, the local lawman, who has been persistent in his efforts to persuade Emily to marry him, is also present, and becomes increasingly jealous of her rapport with Oscar. After some heavy-handed foreshadowing, someone is poisoned, though it’s unclear whether the murderer killed the intended victim. The breezy attitude toward death (a friend of Emily calls this murder “fun,” in contrast to a previous one at Windy Corners, which she considered “rather a nuisance”) undercuts the emotional resonance of the final Dickensian twist. Readers with a high tolerance for Jessica Fletcher syndrome are most likely to enjoy this one. (Mar.)