Clause & Effect

Retiree Mikki Lincoln is doing well back in her hometown of Lenape Hollow, N.Y., in Dunnett’s enjoyable sequel to 2018’s Crime & Punctuation. In particular, her reputation as a freelance book editor has prompted the historical society to ask her to rewrite the script of the town’s bicentennial play to be performed at this year’s 225th celebration. When a wall collapses during construction inside the historical society’s building and a mummified corpse tumbles out, Mikki believes it to be Grace Yarrow, the original playwright who supposedly left town just before the play was performed. When her hunch is confirmed, Mikki digs deeper, despite the warnings of Det. Jonathan Hazlett, and stirs up a hornet’s nest that results in another murder and puts Mikki’s own life in danger. Grace turns out to have had a promiscuous history involving any number of local males, and one feisty lady is determined to bring a killer to justice and right a couple of others wrongs while she’s at it. Cozy fans are in for a treat. [em]Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July) [/em]