A Snapshot of Murder

February 11, 2019
Set in 1928, Brody’s well-crafted 10th Kate Shackleton mystery (after 2018’s Death in the Stars) takes amateur sleuth Kate, a WWI widow, and other members of the Leeds Photographic Society to Haworth, Yorkshire, for the opening of the new Brontë Museum. Once the merry band of shutterbugs arrives at their destination, the air fairly crackles with the anticipation of murder. As Kate notes, “Seven of us went on that photographic outing. Six of us returned.” The one who doesn’t return is Tobias, the group’s disagreeable chairman, who has a dark past. The simmering tension gradually heats up to a rolling boil. Brody dresses this elegant mystery in literary history while accenting the cultural mores of the tumultuous 1920s. She also convincingly renders the secrets and vices of her well-rounded characters. An intelligent and complex woman, Kate is someone readers will want to see a lot more of. Agent: Rebecca Winfield, Rebecca Winfield Literary.

March 1, 2019
Kate Shackleton, an independent investigator in late-1920s Yorkshire, thinks she's taking a bit of a holiday with her photography club, as they join the crowds in Haworth for the opening of the Bront� Museum. The group?which includes Kate and her niece; Tobias and Carine Murchison, who own a photography studio; Carine's former fianc�, long thought to have died in WWI; a young newspaperman who is besotted with Carine; and a friend of Kate's?travels by train to the nearby town, doing a bit of sightseeing before settling into their lodgings. The next day, at the museum opening, the group is pressed into the crowd, but Tobias stumbles, having been fatally stabbed. Marcus Childs from Scotland Yard is called in, but, rather than urge Kate to stay out of it, as he usually does, he contracts with Kate and her associates to make the inquiries he cannot. Their digging reveals ties between Tobias and two other unexplained deaths, broadening the suspect pool but also giving Kate the clues she needs. Another fine entry in a strong historical-mystery series; perfect for fans of post-WWI detectives, including Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)