Resistance, relics, rooster, room and risk

MYSTERIES

Many mystery writers find a formula and are content to stick with it. That's not necessarily bad -- some are top-rate -- but the pattern can become tedious.

Elizabeth Ironside -- the pseudonym of Lady Catherine Manning, wife of a former British ambassador to the United States -- pens no series, repeats no story and follows only one rule: exceptional quality. The latest of her five books to make its initial American appearance, A Good Death (336 pages, Felony & Mayhem, $24.95) is no exception.

In 1944, Theo de Cazalle returns to Bonnemort, his rural estate in France, after five years of fighting with the Free French. He hopes to pick up his life, but he finds that his wife, Ariane, has been shamed, her hair shorn, accused of collaborating and sleeping with an SS major whose troops occupied Bonnemort. The major has been found naked and dead, his throat cut, in Bonnemort's courtyard.

Over the next months, as Theo sets out to find the truth, he encounters an elaborate web of deception, silence and betrayal. With a keen eye for flashback, Ironside tells the story through the lenses of Ariane; her neighbors; her stepdaughter, Sabine; a young Jewish refugee who goes by the name Suzie; and others. And she tells it with ease that could not have come easily, with imagery that is nothing short of arresting:

"The clouds had lifted so that the view over the ranges of hills had re-emerged in layers of grey, paler in the distance, darker nearby, like a Chinese painting."

Ironside is a master storyteller, a creator of characters who live in the reader's memory. Like her previous books, "A Good Death" is exquisitely paced, with elegant and refined prose and a haunting plot that will make you shudder.

. . .

Another sparkling historical mystery, also set in France and informed by war, comes from the talented Barbara Cleverly: Bright Hair About the Bone (432 pages, Delta, $13), the second in her series featuring budding archaeologist Laeitita "Letty" Talbot.

Cleverly moves back in time a bit in this entry. Last year's "The Tomb of Zeus," which introduced Letty, was set in 1928 in Crete. This book takes place in 1927.

Letty has traveled to Burgundy to investigate the stabbing death of her godfather, Daniel Thorndon, who was part of an expedition excavating an ancient church. Letty has hardly arrived than a groom from a nearby estate is found murdered, Letty is drawn into the lives of the aristocrats who own the estate (especially the dashing and dangerous young count), religious history surfaces and Hitler continues his rise in neighboring Germany.

A heady stew, indeed, but Cleverly brings it off with stylish writing, an intricate plot that surprises and satisfies, a sensitive understanding of the past -- and most of all, the always appealing Letty, whose quest for freedom from societal conventions never fails to engage.

. . .

Having worked her way through the seven days of the week in her captivating Lois Meade series, Ann Purser turns to the clock in Warning at One (320 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $22.95).

The eighth book in this English-village series finds Lois, who owns a cleaning business, caught up in complex plot that involves the killings of an elderly retiree and his pet rooster, the appearance across the road of an allegedly blind woman, the disappearance of a recluse who lived next to the retiree and the rooster and the appearance of some shady characters who come and go at the "blind" woman's home.

And worse is yet to come. Lois' elder son, Douglas, has moved back to the area and becomes a suspect in the man's and rooster's deaths. Furious that her cop pal, Hunter Cowgill, has brought Douglas in for questioning and determined to clear her son's name, Lois steps up the pace of her investigations, and all comes right.

Purser's portrayals of village life are always rewarding, and Lois -- that working-class Miss Marple -- is an unforgettable amateur sleuth. "Warning at One" continues the story of Lois and her family in a mystery that entertains, amuses and rewards the reader. And you may never view one of those sleeping-pill commercials that use the theme "Silence Your Rooster" in the same way again.

. . .

The locked-room plot has a storied and honored place in the mystery genre, but in a debut novel set in the Middle Ages?

That's what Jeri Westerson has done in Veil of Lies (288 pages, St. Martin's Minotaur, $27.95), the first in a projected series featuring disgraced former knight Crispin Guest.

It's 1384 in London, and Guest, who now works as the Tracker, a prototype of the private detective, has been summoned by wealthy merchant Nicholas Walcote, who suspects his much younger wife, Philippa, of infidelity. Reluctantly, Guest takes the case. But within hours, Walcote is found stabbed to death in a locked room at his house, and Guest is caught up in a web of European chicanery and the search for a holy relic.

Brimming with medieval atmosphere, blessed with an elaborate plot and interesting characters, "Veil of Lies" shows great promise. And Westerson displays the skill of a writer who has mastered her subject and has used that knowledge to create erudite entertainment.

. . .

Sometimes, despite pedestrian prose and a predictable plot, other aspects of a book may draw you in. Such is the case with Steve Carlson's debut mystery, Final Exposure (288 pages, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95). In this novel, it's the deft characterization of David Collier, the lead character.

David, a lawyer, and his wife, Rebecca, an escrow expert, have forsaken making big money for the creative world: David plans to write, and Rebecca wants to display her photography. They've just bought a beach house north of San Francisco, and everything is going well until a man calls at the front door, shoots Rebecca dead and badly wounds David.

Despite a limp and seriously damaged hearing, David vows to find Rebecca's killer (the reader already knows who and suspects why). And off he sets, throwing himself -- and national security -- into peril.

As rendered by Carlson, David is entirely believable, and Carlson throws in a couple of nice plot twists to keep the reader's interest in the story itself.
Contact Jay Strafford at (804) 649-6698 or jstrafford@timesdispatch.com.