Murder in Schwyz: A Third-Culture Kid Mystery

In Nelson’s entertaining seventh Third-Culture Kid mystery (after 2015’s Murder in Ely), a new assignment takes freelance tech-writer Annie Young-Perret and her husband, Roger Perret, to Einsiedeln, Switzerland, to write a history of the baking company LK. LK’s codirectors, Fritz Bircher and his sister, Petra Ritzman, are at odds over Fritz’s desire to sell the company. Annie is on the job just long enough to decide that she likes Petra and doesn’t like Fritz when Fritz goes missing. When Fritz is found shot to death, Petra is a natural suspect. After Petra’s arrest, she asks Roger, a retired police chief, to investigate. As Annie digs into the company’s archives, she learns a lot about the Bircher family, including company founder Hans-Rudi Bircher and the strong women, such as Annabel Bircher, who improved it. The attention that Nelson pays to the workings of the bakery and the impact of U.S. banking laws on expats living abroad adds weight to this solid murder mystery, which nicely balances Annie’s inquisitiveness with Roger’s expertise. [em](Sept.) [/em]