A Corpse in the Castle

After over a decade, Jordan (Set Sail for Murder) has resurrected his delightfully comedic amateur sleuth Polly Pepper for her fifth cozy mystery. Polly, a raunchier Jessica Fletcher mixed with a more tart-tongued Carol Burnett, won awards decades ago for her variety TV series. But now the TV star (who cautiously admits to being “sixtysomething”) spends most of her time sipping champagne with her domestic companion Tiara and doting on her gay son Tim. This new outing finds Polly inheriting a castle in Abbots Clover, England. With dreams of turning it into a lucrative tourist trap, Polly, Tim, and Tiara travel abroad to inspect the place. When the castle’s disagreeable housekeeper is discovered dead in the kitchen’s larder, Polly is certain she’s been murdered and begins investigating the village’s inhabitants for the culprit. Suspects include the castle’s hunky gardener, a gossip-loving vicar, and a local author whose Peyton Place–like novel is a bit too closely based on local residents. The castle has hidden passageways to be navigated, stolen jewelry to be recovered, and even a nosy ghost.