February 9, 2015
Dorothy Sayers fans will welcome Duncan’s fifth Penny Brannigan mystery set in North Wales (after 2013’s Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By). When the body of the primary organizer of the annual St. David’s Day concert is discovered in the abandoned slate mine, now a tourist attraction, where the concert is to take place, Penny is quick to step in and help Det. Chief Insp. Gareth Davies with the investigation. Meanwhile, Penny and her business partner in the Llanelen Spa discover that someone is selling a counterfeit version of the spa’s special hand lotion at the local market. Penny must also keep the concert’s special-guest singer happy. Duncan doesn’t generate much tension or suspense as she shifts among the various story lines, but she does a good job evoking the toil and hardship intrinsic to the slate mining industry that supported the area’s economy for over two centuries. She manages a neat surprise ending, too. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.