Book Review: To Perish in Penzance

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

To Perish in Penzance    
Jeanne M. Dams
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Cozy   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Dorothy Martin # 7
Walker, Nov 2001, $23.95, 240 pp.

American Dorothy Martin lives in Belleshire, England where her husband Alan Nesbitt once served as Chief Constable. Dorothy and Alan love one another and enjoy their life together, but the heavy rain is driving her crazy. They agree to escape by vacationing in Penzance, where Alan conducted his first homicide case, one he never solved.

Dorothy believes the trip will give her spouse closure for failing to uncover who killed the beautiful victim. However, the opposite happens as they come upon the corpse of the daughter of the woman killed yeas ago in that same cave in Penzance. Lexa had come to Penzance to learn the identity of her father and that of her mother's killer. Now Allan and Dorothy feel obligated to complete Lexa's quest.

Jeanne M.Dams makes a case that there is plenty of life left after sixty as her two sexagenarians' show more vigor and endurance than marathon runners do. Readers will like this crazy pair who love with a passion found in newlyweds four decades younger than them. The mystery is well written leaving the audience to wonder not only who the killer is but if he is the person who killed Lexa's mother. TO PERISH IN PENZANCE is a stirring cozy.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner