Death Comes to Durham

In Dams’s intriguing 23rd Dorothy Martin mystery (after Death in the Garden City), murder spoils the visit of retired American schoolteacher Dorothy and her British husband, retired policeman Alan Nesbit, to Durham, England, the home of Alan’s old police colleague, David Tregarth. David’s elderly great-aunt, a resident with dementia at a nursing home outside the city, is the chief suspect in the killing of Blake Armstrong, a physician who was taking a few days rest at the nursing home. Dorothy, an experienced amateur sleuth, joins Alan and David in trying to find the real culprit, aided by a student guide from Durham University, where the couple are staying. They discover that Armstrong may have been hiding out at the home because he saw something he shouldn’t have, and that tidbit leads to connections with the university as well as a wealthy dysfunctional family. The tension rises as another nursing home resident and Dorothy are attacked. Cozy fans and Anglophiles will be satisfied. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Assoc. (July)