Better Homes and Corpses: 06/20/21

Better Homes and Corpses by Kathleen Bridge is the start of the Hamptons Home and Garden mystery series. It's also the second book in recent months I've read with a main character who relocates to Montauk New York. This one though is a contemporary novel so it was interesting to see which details made it through, such as the historic lighthouse.

Meg Barrett has moved to Montauk after finding her ex-fiancé with his ex-wife. She quickly finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery when the Queen Mother of the Hamptons is murdered and her frail daughter is left with amnesia.

I have to admit from the introduction of Jillian I was immediately picturing Victoria Pedretti as she portrayed Nell Crain in the Netflix adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House. Her apparent frailty is a key part of this mystery.

Meg's sleuthing is tied up in her knowledge of antiques and her willingness to get dirty going through people's attics and closets. She differs from other recent amateur sleuths I've read because she starts off the series with a large nest egg, enough to get her interior decorating business up and running and to buy a cottage. Yet, she's not like Tricia Miles in Murder is Binding who is older and has been saving up for this move through a long career.

The nuts and bolts of the mystery were pretty easy to figure out but the setting and characters are interesting. There was enough derring-do to keep things moving. All in all it was a satisfying page turner.

Book two is Hearse and Gardens (2016).

Five stars

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