A Killer in King’s Cove

A man’s body, the skull bashed in, is found in the creek that supplies water to the small rural community of King’s Cove in British Columbia. None of the residents admit to knowing the victim even though one of them must have committed the crime. Suspicion falls on Lane Winslow, a recent arrival from the U.K., in Canada to forget the horrors of World War II. Intrigue abounds among the dozen or so inhabitants, their histories stretching, in some cases, back to events in World War I. Clues are liberally scattered along the way; in fact too liberally because this reviewer figured out the solution before Lane, the heroine of the piece, managed to do so. The story proceeds at a leisurely pace, with the body, for example, not discovered until the sixtieth page. The writing compensates, however, conjuring up nicely the ambiance of a 1940s west Canadian locale and developing in depth both the characters and their interactions. A Killer in King’s Cove is worth a look, especially as the author intends to reprise her lead character. If she can speed up the action and make the mystery more mystifying, the next one will be a real winner.