Interesting! Very different sort of murder mystery. And the first one where I was thoroughly rooting for the demise of the intended victim! ( )

tour guide hired to kill member of tour group keeps missing

McCrumb was wise to abandon this series. It was mediocre at best. The Ballad novels are better. ( )

Rowan Rover, British expert on historical true crimes, is twice divorced and hounded by creditors. As he prepares to lead a two-week mystery tour of the UK, he is approached by a man who wants him to murder one of the tourists, Susan Cohen. Financially desperate and maintaining an admirable sense of denial about the crime itself, Rowan agrees. Amateur sleuth Elizabeth McPherson, whose new husband is on a six-week work engagement, is a member of the tour.

Susan turns out to be almost hilariously obnoxious, talking continually about how things are done in her home town of Minneapolis and reciting the plots of mysteries she has read. As Rowan contemplates how to do the deed, we see that almost any of the tourists might be willing to do it for him. His early attempts are deflected onto the other tourists, making one quite ill and another injured. When Elizabeth receives an electric shock in the hotel room that had been assigned to Susan, she wonders if someone might actually be making unsuccessful attempts on Susan's life.

There are several funny moments in which Rowan, contemplating his assignment, is startled by tourists' questions or exclamations about the other murders featured on the tour. Ms. McCrumb stops short of slapstick hilarity and leaves us to wonder what will happen. Can he do it? Can he get away with it? How can he survive if he fails? The final solution is almost inevitable, but it includes a nice twist. A quick, fun read, which will be especially appealing to those with an interest in the company's tour of the UK's historical true crime scenes. ( )

Light and amusing summer read for us. However, the mystery was slight and not a whole of chuckles. ( )