Pair for the Queen

The enterprising Vermont sleuth Tish McWhinny - whom Booklist calls 'an absolutely first-rate companion' - returns in her fifth Vermont mystery, on the trail of a murderer at a local dog show. Tish McWhinny reluctantly gets involved in restoring an old painting for a dog show promotion harmless enough, but then the painting is stolen and someone is murdered. Is the crime connected to the rather shady new couple now running the local store? What about the retired Royal Navy man, now much interested in art, who unexpectedly turns up? Or niece Sophie's secretive new boyfriend? It takes all Tish's ingenuity, as well as the help of her courtly friend Hilary Oats and free-spirit Sophie, to find out what's going on and catch a cold criminal. 'Lofton, Vermont, is a place I'd like to live right next door to Tish McWhinny, if possible. Barbara Comfort's Vermont mysteries have the wonderful quality of being both mysterious and friendly. I love that saucy, sassy, septuagenarian Tish McWhinny.' Barbara D'Amato