Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Assassins at Ospreys- R.T. Raichev

Assassins at Ospreys
R.T. Raichev
Soho, Apr 2008, $22.95
ISBN 9781569475058

Mystery writer Antonia Darcy and her husband Major Hugh Payne attend a literary gala in Hay-on-Wye. At the festival they meet an odd couple, wheelchair bound seductive Beatrice “Bee” Ardleigh and her companion sober Ingrid Delmar. They enjoy the flirtatious sexy Bee, but find Ingrid overly prim and proper.

A few months later, Bee invites the couple to visit her at her home Oxfordshire they accept. In Oxfordshire, Antonia and Hugh learn Bee has surprisingly married and Ingrid pretends to be Bee while seeing a dying neighbor; whose will bequests his home Ospreys, known in the region as “the secret house of death”, to the National Trust. However, the abode lives up to its reputation when someone murders a priest there leading to Antonia and Hugh investigating the crime..

The third Darcy-Payne mystery (see THE DEATH OF CORRINE and THE HUNT FOR SONYA DUFRETTE) is a fabulous whodunit that starts off innocently but soon spins into a murder investigation. The story line is filled with twists and fascinating support characters, who break stereotypes especially the sex siren Bee. Fans of an old fashion entertaining investigative thriller will want to read ASSASSINS AT OSPREYS and its predecessors as this is a solid series.

Harriet Klausner

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