Former headmaster of an elite upstate New York boarding school, Maggie Detweiler has been called to evaluate the wavering Rye Manor School for Girls in Connecticut. The new headmaster seems uncannily inexperienced to bring Rye out of it's wallowing, and the quaint small town it's in would be devastated by it's closing. At a welcome reception to introduce Maggie to the staff, she meets beloved art history teacher Florence Meagher, who suffers from what multiple people call "the affliction"—she simply can't, or won't, stop talking. The next day, Florence doesn't come to work, and is reported missing by her annoyed rather than concerned husband.

Maggie immediately feels like things aren't quite what they seem, and when Florence's body surfaces the next day floating in the school pool, she starts an additional investigation into what is really going on. Calling in her socialite best friend Hope Babbin, the two amateur sleuths get down to business to find out if this was a typical marital murder, or something else involving the school. Was it really her husband, who eventually admits his marriage wasn't ideal? Or did the school treasurer have something to hide that Florence discovered? Or could the students be behind it all? As Maggie and Hope uncover more and more clues, the final answer is not what they ever expected...

An entertaining and quick mystery! THE AFFLICTION by Beth Gutcheson keeps readers interested with it's vast cast of characters, and Maggie and Hope at the center of it all. Slightly far-fetched that two amateur detectives got away with as much as they did, it was still an engaging story, with two women at its heart, trying to find justice for someone wrongly killed. The strong female friendship will keep readers going; when Maggie and Beth are on the page together, they are so much fun, even with the murderous plot. Between witty banter, they feed off of one another and come to startling conclusions that move the mystery further along.

There were a few too many characters in the book whose stories don't come to a completely satisfying endings, but they do have important parts within the overall mystery of the book. Additionally, the actual "affliction" came across as just an annoying problem the poor murdered woman suffered from, rather than something that constituted it being the title of the book. Reminiscent of MURDER SHE WROTE, THE AFFLICTION is an appealing cozy mystery with dark social commentary mixed in, and an astonishing end. Recommended for mystery fans.