Lois Meade lives at Meade House in the quaint English village of Long Farnden. She lives with her husband, Derek, and her mom, Elsie Grant "Gran" Weedon. Her daughter, Josie, married a local policeman, Mathew. Her two brothers, Douglas and Jamie comprise the family. Lois is the proud owner of her own cleaning company, nattily called New Brooms, We Sweep Better.
She enjoys her business, keeps busy but sometimes helps Inspector Cowgill solve local crimes. Gran and her husband do not approve of her meddling. Derek calls it "ferretin". The Top Cop, Inspector Cowgill, has a strong partiality for Lois Meade, which is well known at the police station. He enjoys Lois's help in any crimes in his area and does not hesitate to ask for her help.
The beautiful Mill House Hotel is the scene of the murder of a young woman found strangled with a silver necklace. Not far from her body was a bag filled with costume jewelry. Sylvia Fountain, the victim, was known to be a frequent visitor at the hotel and always came with a gentleman. The jewelry was traced back to the Brigham Luxury Jewelry. Donald Black who represents Brigham Jewelry became the prime suspect.
Aurora Black, his wife, is the owner of the Brigham Bakery where she makes crusty homemade bread the old fashioned way. Aurora loves kneading by hand, baking the bread in the old ovens that had been there for years and her freshly baked breads are sold out every day. She and Lois are good friends, having a drink together at the Mill House Hotel when they see the body of Donald Black drowned in the Mill Pond. His past is investigated and it becomes clear he was a serial Don Juan, who someone felt needed killing. Who done it.?
This whodunit seemed obvious to me early on and I stuck with my pick for the killer and was correct. Several interesting twists and lots of descriptions of bling and jewelry parties. Gram was a humorous character that I enjoyed and I always like a fluffy white dog, like Jemima, that adds fun to the chase. SUSPICION AT SEVEN is the 14th Lois Meade Mystery from Ann Purser and I will await the 15th coming soon, me thinks. Fun, Fast and enjoyable read.
Lois Meade has done enough buffing and polishing over the years with her cleaning business, New Brooms, to know that all that glitters is not gold. So when a bag of costume jewellery is the main clue in a murder, she has a strong suspicion that appearances may be deceiving… After a woman is discovered in the Mill House Hotel, strangled with a silver necklace beside a bag filled with faux silver, gold and pearls, costume jewelry dealer Donald Black seems like the obvious suspect. But Lois knows Donald's wife, who runs a baker’s shop near the hotel, and can’t believe her husband could be a killer. Plus, Donald has an airtight alibi. Nevertheless, Donald is no angel. It appears he’s running a pyramid scheme, and Lois’s mother is getting sucked in. Could the murder have anything to do with his unscrupulous business practices? As Inspector Cowgill and Lois hope the bling may shine a light on the killer, the discovery of a second body on the old waterwheel in the hotel may be grist for the mill in solving the murder—if they can manage to catch the culprit without getting the runaround.
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