Monday, October 18, 2010

The Extinguished Guest-Jeanne Glidewell

The Extinguished Guest
Jeanne Glidewell
Five Star, Nov 5 2010, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594148965

In Shawnee, Kansas, affluent Lexie Star is forty eight years old but has been a widow for almost two decades. She met on line jeweler Stone Van Patten while looking into a situation potentially close to home involving her twenty-five years old daughter Wendy (See Leave No Stone Unturned). Stone and Lexie are attracted to one another so he relocated from the East Coast to be with her. He purchased a historic mansion which he is converting into the Alexandria Inn B&B.

Because the inn is on the National register of Historical Places, the Rockdale Historical Society hosts its annual meeting there. However, newly elected president Horatio Prescott is shot in the head. Police Detective Wyatt Johnson leads the homicide investigation; he demands the eight society member guests and one wife remain at the inn; Stone allows them to stay gratis. However, to save the reputation of the B&B Stone and Lexie make inquiries that prove how odious of a person Horatio was.

The underlying reason Lexie and Stone provide for sleuthing seems far-fetched; but readers will put that aside as the whodunit is entertaining, the lead couple cute as middle age in love adults and the support cast eccentric including the amoral victim seen through his scorning compatriots. Character driven, readers will enjoy an extended stay at the Alexandria Inn as the amateur sleuths Leave No Stone Unturned while investigating who murdered The Extinguished Guest.

Harriet Klausner

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