For fans of: Kate Kingsbury and Nancy Atherton

Inspector Hunter Cowgill and the Long Farnden police frequently enlist the help of amateur sleuth Lois Meade in solving the village’s more difficult crimes, so Lois is rarely surprised to find the Inspector at her door. This time, however, when Cowgill turns up, he comes bearing news she doesn’t expect: her daughter Josie’s partner, Rob, has been found beaten and unconscious on the side of the road. The police and the residents of Long Farnden suspect the culprit is part of a band of traveling gypsies who have been camping on Alf Smith’s land, but Lois isn’t so sure; why would one of the gypsies have any reason to harm Rob? Tensions between the gypsies and the villagers are already high, but when Rob ends up dying from his injuries, things turn from bad to worse. The gypsies’ camp is set ablaze late one night, and while no one is seriously injured, Lois knows it’s just a matter of time before another tragedy rocks Long Farnden. Does Lois have what it takes to solve Rob’s murder and help restore peace to the village?

Tragedy at Two is the ninth book in author Ann Purser’s Lois Meade Mystery series. It’s a skillfully written and intricately plotted tale that turns on its head the notion that small-town life is always cozy. Purser’s Long Farnden may appear at first blush to be a quaint, old-fashioned English village, but make no mistake – scratch the surface, and you’ll discover a community with more than its fair share of extramarital affairs, teenage pregnancies, drug deals, domestic abuse, racism, and sexism.

Purser’s characters are fully developed to a one. She successfully uses third-person narration to not only forward the plot, but to convey to the emotions and motivations of her characters, making the reader empathize with the members of her cast from page one. From smart, strong, independent Lois to grieving daughter Josie to adolescent thug Mark, there’s not a cardboard cutout in the bunch.

I also love the relationship Purser’s created between Lois and Inspector Cowgill. She doesn’t provide much backstory regarding the two so I don’t know what kind of history they share, but it’s clear Cowgill both respects Lois’ intelligence and skill as a sleuth and harbors a not-so-secret love for her. For her part, Lois clearly respects and admires Cowgill and appreciates his adoration, but is determined to keep their relationship strictly professional. The dance they do around each other over the course of the book is intriguing and charming and is reason enough to make me want to investigate the series further.

It should be noted that this book is more character-driven than it is event-driven; that is to say, Tragedy at Two is less a mystery novel than it is a novel about a mystery. The reader isn’t provided with very many clues or viable suspects, so while the central mystery is clever, Purser doesn’t give the average reader a fair shot at solving it. For that reason, the book is a bit more slowly paced than your average mystery and can feel a bit long at times. The payoff, however, is largely worth the effort.

Reviewed by: Kat