Book 3
A Trace of Poison by Colleen Cambridge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I got this in a publisher giveaway and I was both interested (prior to winning) and nervous. I have had bad luck with mysteries using real people as detectives. In this case, Agatha Christie is detective adjacent. The real amateur sleuth is her nurse friend from the war turned housekeeper, Phyllida Bright.
I was dubious at first because we meet Phyllida being tiresome about the chauffer's little dog and her anti-dog (or is it just this dog) stance was a bit off-putting. Phyllida is also rather sure she is right about everything and no one else is so it took me a little while to warm up to her. However, in the end I did like her and this book a lot.
Agatha and the Detection Club (which was real, a group for all the famous mystery authors of the time) are hosting a murder fete with the local Murder Club of authors competing for a publishing prize (Phyllida is sure an author would kill to be published and as one, I have to agree) . So we have all kinds of suspects, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha, G.K. Chesterton to just name a few real ones and then the murder club where we have a priest writing a Father Brown type, an antique dealer, a woman writing about a talking cat (that everyone laughs at her) another woman writing a Poirot-like character in Italy, an Indian doctor who is an expert in poisons and Alaistaire Whittlesby, the local lawyer who everyone thinks is a shoe in to win.
Naturally Whittlesby is an obnoxious jackass and when the first victim falls at the club cocktail party, everyone assumes Allie is the intended victim. The novel moves at a fast pace and tosses out the clues well (I did figure out how and why). Having not seen book one, I wasn't sure why Phyllida is convinced Inspector Cork wasn't competent enough to solve this but naturally she knows better.
I was also curious at a few of her comments as I think Phyllida is ACE or at least demisexual (and she does have a few probably interested men) In many ways her superior attitude reminds me of Sherlock or Agatha's own Poirot and it's a little grating with her as it is with them but it seems to be a mystery trope of long standing. I will definitely read more in this series.
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