cover image Mystery Loves Company: Another John Pickett Mystery

Mystery Loves Company: Another John Pickett Mystery

Sheri Cobb South. Sonatina, $12.95 trade paper (300p) ISBN 978-0-692893-17-3

In South’s workmanlike seventh Regency whodunit featuring Bow Street Runner John Pickett (after 2017’s For Deader or Worse), Lady Washbourn retains his private inquiry services because she fears, after suffering several suspicious accidents, that her husband is plotting to kill her. At a fancy dress ball at her London home where Pickett goes undercover, Annie Barton, a maid, drops dead. While Pickett suspects that Annie was poisoned, the inquest concludes that she died of natural causes related to pregnancy. Pickett’s wife, Julia, whose first husband’s murder he investigated in 2006’s In Milady’s Chamber, contributes to the sleuthing. Series fans will be pleased to learn that Julia, whose first husband was no good in bed, has come to enjoy sex. Romance readers will be more satisfied than mystery buffs. (Jan.)