The Wrong Rite: A Madoc and Janet Rhys Mystery

"Alisa Craig" is the name used by the late Charlotte MacLeod (she died in 2004) when writing mysteries that featured Canadian characters (her own name was used for New England mysteries), specifically the Grub-and-Stakers/Dittany Henbit and Madoc & Janet Rhys series. This one is the final volume of the latter (preceded by A Pint of Murder, Murder Goes Mumming, A Dismal Thing to Do, and Trouble in the Brasses). Detective-Inspector Madoc Rhys of the RCMP and his wife Janet, with eight-month-old daughter Dorothy in tow, are in Wales to attend the 90th-birthday celebration of Madoc's great-uncle Sir Caradoc. So are any number of other relatives, some of whom are the kind you're just as happy not to see very often. On their very first morning at Sir Caradoc's manor, Madoc discovers a slaughtered and dismembered ram in a crumbling chapel--and a concussed shepherd behind the altar. At first he thinks it a prank, or perhaps a slightly mis-done pagan sacrifice (the Old Religion still has its share of adherents in the Welsh countryside, including his distant cousins Bob (a member of an organization known as the Friends of the Lesser Demons, and a self-described descendant of the Elizabethan magus John Dee) and Mary (who is determined to properly re-enact the ancient fertility rite of jumping the Beltane fires)). Then, exactly midway through the book, Mary literally goes up in flames while doing her jump, and her clothing is found to have been loaded with gunpowder. The local police don't want to antagonize a powerful local man like Sir Caradoc (and the Chief Constable has been feuding with him for years), so it's up to Madoc to quietly steer the investigation in the right direction. Who could have wanted Mary dead? Had she simply annoyed someone past bearing by her insistence on doing the rite properly? Was the culprit her nephew and apprentice Dai, who didn't want to follow in her footsteps? Brother Bob, who held a large insurance policy on her life? Madoc soon discovers that there may be a connection to the mysterious murder eight years before of another cousin, Arthur--and that his brother Dafydd is desperately in love with the widow. Craig skilfully sows red herrings (I was convinced at first that actress-cousin Iseult was the killer) and provides plenty of wry, subtle humor, a large cast of delightfully eccentric characters, and a poetic reproduction of the distinctive Welsh country speech pattern. It's a pity there will be no more Madoc Rhys mysteries, but the character certainly goes out in style (if not on his native heath) and proves that he can hold his own even in a foreign country.

Canadian mountie Madoc Rhys takes his wife Janet and their little daughter to Wales, to visit Madoc's extended family. Filled with delightful characters, this cozy mystery is a wonderful addition to the series.