I was brought in as second copy editor on this book, and I must tell you, I was enamoured immediately. It is the first in a series of German mysteries by author Andrea Instone. This translation into English has been done by Rachel Reynolds of Nightshade and Moonlight publishing.
This is not your typical cosy mystery. It is so much more. I felt as though I were in an Alphonse Mucha painting in a sense – the book is set partially in 20s Cornwall and partially in Bonn, Germany. And apart from the mystery elements, it is more of a coming of age story.
The heroine is a girl, almost a young woman, whose father sends her a very stern, remote letter, nothing like the ones he normally sends. She senses that something is wrong and travels from her grandmother’s holiday home in Cornwall to her father’s house in Bonn. But he has mysteriously gone missing. His letters and postcards say he is on a lecture tour, but Emma knows he would never leave town so close to her birthday, which is also the day of her mother’s death.
Two young men come into her life at this time. The one is a handsome, casually friendly German youth who works at the university and is completely smitten by her. The other is a brooding, blushing Englishman who has his own charm. Which one shall she choose?
The author makes the plot something of a police procedural and something of a complete mystery, keeping the reader guessing till the very end. The character arcs are finely drawn, and in general the entire novel is an absolutely perfect antidote to a boring afternoon. I would highly recommend it to any reader of mystery, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Order it on Amazon.
Tarryn Thomas Editing 