Love Dies Twice: A Cassandra Reilly Mystery

In Wilson’s stellar sixth mystery featuring translator Cassandra Reilly (after 2021’s Not the Real Jupiter), Avery Armstrong, a London literary agent Cassandra has worked with, needs her help. Avery wants Cassandra to accompany her to a lecture given by biographer Fiona Craig, whose subject is the late Stella Terwicker, author of a series of medieval mysteries set in 13th-century Flanders. Hoping that in return, Avery will agree to represent an author whose work Cassandra has translated, she agrees to run interference in case Vonn Henley, “a member of a publishing collective that only published lesbians” and supposedly threatened Fiona, disrupts the talk. Vonn does attend, but there are no fireworks. The incident recedes from Cassandra’s memory until Vonn’s found drowned in a pool in Bristol weeks later under suspicious circumstances. Cassandra’s curiosity leads her to investigate and uncover secrets about Terwicker en route to the satisfying ending. Wilson’s depiction of the vicissitudes of the publishing world and plausible complex interpersonal relationships enhance the gripping story line. Dorothy Sayers fans will hope for more from this gifted writer. (Self-published)