Money in the Morgue

Duffy (The Hidden Room) does an excellent job building a taut atmospheric whodunit based on the opening chapters and a few notes that Marsh (1895–1982) left behind for her 33rd mystery featuring Scotland Yard’s Chief Det. Insp. Roderick Alleyn. During WWII, Alleyn takes on a sensitive undercover assignment at a New Zealand military hospital, Mount Seager, after counterespionage suspects that radio transmissions from its vicinity are intended for the Japanese. Alleyn poses as a Mount Seager patient, a writer suffering from a nervous disorder. For a week, he discovers nothing of significance, until he’s confronted with “a major robbery, the missing corpse of an elderly man, and the found body of the most senior and longest-serving staff member in the hospital.” A storm that cuts off the hospital from the outside world hampers Alleyn’s efforts to sort out what happened. Duffy’s facility at injecting wit into fair-play detecting will make Marsh fans hope she’ll continue the series. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernert Co. (Nov.)