The Corpse with the Silver Tongue

February 20, 2012
Ace’s smooth debut introduces Welsh-born Cait Morgan, a Vancouver, B.C., criminology professor and police consultant, who finds more than she bargained for in Nice, France, where she’s come to present a colleague’s paper. A chance encounter with her former boss, wealthy, unscrupulous Alastair Townsend, leads to a dinner invitation at his exclusive apartment. When Alastair expires after slumping into a bowl of escargots at the dinner table, Cait becomes, by default, the prime suspect because all the other guests are well-known locally. Among them are the poisoning victim’s trophy wife, Tamsin; octogenarian gardener Gerard Fontainebleau; and thriller author Chuck Damcott. Tamsin cries something about the “curse of the Celtic collar,” a stolen necklace. A museum robbery and further deaths give the plus-sized Cait plenty to think about as she tries to apply her academic expertise to solving the murder. Cait’s enjoyable first outing should earn her a well-deserved encore.

April 1, 2012

Welsh Canadian criminology professor Cait Morgan is attending a conference in Nice, France, when a chance encounter with her old boss, Alistair, leads to a dinner party invitation. Alarmingly, Alistair dies of food poisoning at dinner. But his young widow seems most distraught because her birthday gift--a rare and storied necklace known as a Celtic collar--is missing. When another party guest subsequently dies, the connection between the necklace and the victims becomes evident, and the killer moves to silence Cait as well. VERDICT In the finest tradition of Agatha Christie, debut author Ace brings us the closed-room drama, with a dollop of romantic suspense and historical intrigue. The ending involving Cait's friends in Vancouver feels tacked on but leaves an effective opening for Cait's return. I like matching this author with Anne Zouroudi for tone and locale, and M.L. Longworth for the book's French history.

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