Foreign Relations

In this latest stand-alone, No. 6 in The Val & Kit Mystery Series, the lifelong friends are vacationing in England. After four days of sightseeing in London, the fiftysomething Val and Kit move on to a rented cottage in the bucolic village of Little Dipping, where Val's actress daughter, Emily, and son-in-law are temporarily living and where Emily has become involved in community theater. Val and Kit quickly immerse themselves in village life and befriend several locals, including the leader of the Brownie troop, the pub owner and his wife, and a curious eight-year-old named Ivy. They also manage to rub more than one of their new acquaintances the wrong way. Nevertheless, they revel in the English countryside as well as the theatrical activities, despite Val's ex-husband showing up and some troubling news from back home. The harmony of the village is soon broken, however, by the vicious murder of one of their new friends. The shocking events that follow are only slightly more horrific than one from the past that continues to confound authorities. The crimes threaten to involve Emily, so Val and Kit return to their roles as amateur sleuths, employing their own inimitable ways.