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CLASSIC/CRIME/FORENSICS/
PARTNER SLEUTHS/
TRADITIONAL/WHODUNIT/
COZY/POLICE PROCEDURAL MYSTERY
ON THE TWELFTH NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS
DS Brenna Taylor and DCI Geoffrey Graham are summoned to investigate a drowning in a wintry pond during a family 12th Night party.  As bizarre as the case seems, it quickly becomes personal for the CID team, for one of their own detectives becomes prime suspect in this case of murder.  Brenna finds herself caught between the police investigation and her belief in DS Mark Salt's innocence.  But even her faith is strained when Mark's parody of the Christmas song "The 12 Days of Christmas" hints that he was having an affair with his murdered sister-in-law.  Now that Brenna is finally viewing Mark as a human being, will he be brought up on a murder charge?
Read A Review:

The Salt family, a British family, celebrates Twelfth Night. Mercedes, their oldest son’s wife, announces she wants a divorce. She also says she’s going to vote no for the upcoming expansion of the family business, making high-quality harpsichords.

The next morning she goes for a walk and ends up being found drowned in the pond that’s iced over. The pond is between the Salt estate and her brother’s home. Mark, the Salt’s middle son, is a police detective in this district and is soon one of the prime suspects. Some of his time while searching for Mercedes is unaccounted for.

The book is set on the Salt estate, and most of it is conducted there, even with the detectives staying at the estate. This family has so many issues with each other, the police are inundated with motives. Then there is a second murder. Can the police figure out who the real killer is before there are any more deaths?

Brenna Taylor, one of the detectives, has feelings for two of her colleagues, but due to policy, she doesn’t act on them. I do hope she will have a romantic interest in one of the upcoming books. She is a very likeable character.

I normally don’t like British mysteries, but it helps me a lot when they are written by an American author as this is. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but I hope to read more. I recommend this book.

Dawn Dowdle