Cool Repentence: A Jemima Shore Mystery

Jemima Shore Investigator goes to Larminster to cover the small local theater festival held in that town by the sea. What seems like it will be a boring and standard assignment, turns into a free-for-all as the return of an infamous local actress to the stage sets tempers flaring. Murder follows murder as Jemima begins to have her own ideas about who is to blame. It is really a mark of how good Fraser is as a detective writer that I really enjoyed this book despite the unbelievable ending. While not as good as some of the other Fraser novels, the characters still have depth and the writing has a fine and subtle quality well above that of most detective fiction novels. If you have not read Fraser before, I would begin with Quiet as a Nun, not Cool Repentance. If already a Fraser fan, it is still enjoyable, even when it does not deserve to be.