On a Desert Shore: A Regency Mystery

Fans of traditional whodunits with a closed circle of suspects will enjoy Rizzolo’s fourth historical featuring savvy Bow Street Runner John Chase (after 2014’s Die I Will Not). When Chase was defending the British Empire in the West Indies in 1796, he almost lost his life to yellow fever. A local healer, Joanna, restored him to health. In London 17 years later, he has occasion to help Joanna’s daughter, Marina, whose merchant father, Hugo Garrod, made his fortune in the Caribbean, but he has raised her in England. Garrod is afraid that someone is playing cruel tricks on Marina, leading her to fear she’s cursed, and he hires Chase to get to keep an eye on her. The case ends up being one of murder after several people are poisoned. Chase is aided in his search for the truth by two other well-limned characters, barrister Edward Buckler and writer Penelope Wolfe. Rizzolo nicely evokes the period, but the book works better as a classic murder puzzle than as a probing look at Regency England. (Mar.)