Award-winning author Jill Churchill takes us back to beautiful Grace & Favor, the tiny town along the Hudson River known for tradition, charm . . . and murder.
March 3, 1933, the day before Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration. While Robert Brewster heads to Washington, D.C., to witness the historic event, his sister, Lily, travels to a nursing home near Grace & Favor. The owner, Miss Twibell, has lost an assistant nurse, and the siblings have agreed to help out.
The home is full of colorful characters, including a cantankerous old man named Sean Connor, the only patient who is seriously ill. The very day the Brewsters arrive, he slips into a coma and passes away. Though saddened, no one is surprised by his death -- until it's revealed that he's been murdered. The old man wasn't well liked, but who would bother to murder him when he had so little time left? Several people had visited his room that morning, and there are plenty of suspects. Good motives, on the other hand, are thin on the ground.
And Mr. Connor isn't the only victim in town. Over the winter, a young man went missing and was presumed dead, though no body was found. Now that the spring sun has melted the ice, a body has surfaced. Is this the missing man or has a third crime been committed?
With multiple murders plaguing the community, the Brewster siblings are more committed than ever to helping the police find a cold-blooded criminal before he strikes again.
This book is apparently smack in the middle of a series. I really hate coming into the middle of things like that. I felt lost during much of it and didn't understand how or why the brother and sister pair were supposed to be intertwined with the mystery. Most of the time I felt as if I were reading two separate stories. That of the destitute brother and sister trying to make ends meet during the great depression and the other of the murder mystery being solved by other assorted characters. It was light reading but too disjointed for me to truly enjoy or comprehend.
I did find it very interesting to read about the brother & sister pair taking whatever jobs they could find (without complaint and "oh woe is me") and using all of their resources to make it through tough financial times. The mystery was a bit "meh" for me but I'm not a big mystery fan so that's not shocking.