Tess Morgan is restoring Kilfenora House and Gardens in County Wicklow, so I was entirely happy in the immersive setting of THE MYSTERY OF FOUR. Author Sam Blake, a pen name for the woman behind the writing.ie website, lives in this area, and knows the good (scenic, clean, with friendly people) and the bad (isolation, dark nights, past misfortunes). Having set the stage for a Jacobean tragedy, she opens the curtain to a crime thriller with an amateur sleuth, not her earlier police procedurals.

As part of the fast-approaching opening weekend, Tess has agreed that friends in the village can perform a semi-professional play at the grand house. The garden is already open to visitors on certain days, providing a small income. Still, she’s dependent on the expected visitor tickets, and her need forces her to continue with all plans, even after an accident on stage. And, yes, even after a tragedy and another tragedy. . . 

Several elements blend and can make the storyline chaotic until the reader settles in: a Twitter troll, a village Facebook page, and the past disappearances in the area thought to be the work of a serial killer. As the narration switches among a few characters, I did find it hard to keep track sometimes, but it then stopped bothering me and I just read, as the people all met up anyway. I was delighted with the redoubtable Merlin the cat. Major persons are Gen Fortune, Tess’s good friend who runs an antique shop, and her mother, Clarissa Westmacott, a former actress still with a stage presence in her golden years. The play being rehearsed is Doctor Faustus, which implies the presence of evil, and seemed odd that they would not have chosen an Irish playwright and a lighter theme.

Have fun reading THE MYSTERY OF FOUR, which switches from chatty to atmospheric, and showcases the determined reconstruction of not just a house, but of lives. With the ruin of house and of happiness in the past, Tess wants to move forward – but someone is set on stopping her. This is an absorbing puzzle with shades of Agatha Christie and modern police work.

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