From Publishers Weekly
Inefficient, gullible and inept: not promising attributes in a PI who runs her own agency. But Kate Kinsella, head of Medical and Nursing Investigations, has other, admirable skills that she puts to good use in this brisk and appealing British mystery. She should have known that something might be amiss when she was hired by elderly Elizabeth Forrester to find her missing nephew Nigel, co-owner of a hotel on the Isle of Wight. Why did Mrs. Forrester refuse to meet her? Why is beauteous Caroline Uxton, whom Kate met on the ferry to Wight, so anxious to help her with her inquiries? And why are three aged residents of the hotel so relentlessly nosy? Kate, accepting Caroline's offer of help in finding Nigel, becomes the prime suspect when Caroline is found bludgeoned to death in Nigel's tiny home. That eventuality galvanizes Kate into intelligent action; with the aid of her devoted and decidedly eccentric friend, funeral director Hubert Humberstone, she resolutely follows a paper trail and discovers con games, fraud, revenge?and Nigel. This fourth in the series to be published by Walker (after Deadly Practice) sustains a bleak, wintry atmosphere, keeps up a finely tuned sense of the ludicrous and tops it off with a heroine who is determined, feminine, bold and more than adequately flawed.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Former nurse turned private investigator Kate Kinsella is hired to find Nigel Carter, who's part owner of a resort hotel on the Isle of Wight. It's winter, so a visit to a resort on the Isle of Wight doesn't have much appeal, but the intrepid Kate packs her bags and sets off. Soon after arriving, she finds herself befriended by a trio of vodka-swilling octogenarians, fighting off the advances of Nigel's handsome partner, and sharing confidences with an attractive but mysterious woman named Caroline. Kate isn't making much headway with her investigation--until Caroline turns up dead. Then it's clear she's on to something. Green tries a trifle too hard to be witty, and her characters sometimes behave in inexplicably naive ways, but overall, the tale is lighthearted, charming, and fun. Emily Melton
