Murder at Wedgefield Manor

As Neubauer’s sprightly follow-up to 2020’s Murder at the Mena House opens in 1926, American widow Jane Wunderly is taking flying lessons at the Essex estate of Lord Hughes, her aunt Millie’s former lover, and getting acquainted with Lord Hughes’s daughter, Lillian, who aspires to a golfing career. After Simon Marshall, a mechanic on the estate and a troubled WWI veteran, dies in an accident, Jane is disturbed to learn the car he was driving had been tampered with. She teams up with the handsome Mr. Redvers , who has resurfaced after their earlier encounter in Egypt, to investigate. Soon Lillian’s cousin Alistair is poisoned, Lillian’s friend Marie narrowly evades an attack, Jane is pushed into a stream by an unknown assailant, and Jane’s flying instructor is hit over the head. Though attentive fans might guess the perpetrator, the country house intrigue and an unconventional chase reap rewards. Readers will look forward to further cases of the intrepid Jane and the mysterious Mr. Redvers. Agent: Ann Collette, Rees Literary. (Apr.)