Since I can't get the ballad books for kindle, I thought I would try one of the Elizabeth McPherson books. Not as atmospheric and moody as the ballad books, but doggone good. I remember reading a couple of these long ago, and I am looking forward to rediscovering the one with the business of the novice ducks. I'm thinking it may be book three in the series, Highland Laddie Gone, since I remember that the action took place at highland games somewhere in the coastal south.
I remember these books as being really funny, but this was not. It is definitely lighter fare than the ballads, but neither is it at the level of hysteria of Bimbos of the Death Sun. McCrumb is clearly a woman of infinite talents.
Elizabeth ends up being the default representative of her branch of the family to the wedding of her cousin, Eileen Chandler. The poor cousin (Elizabeth) is drafted into the service of her domineering aunt and is required to address last minute invitations and sundry other mundane tasks while the bride-to-be wanders about vaguely and works secretively on a painting destined to be a gift for her prospective husband - until the bride-to-be becomes the murder victim.
The Chandlers are a clan with enough money to do (or not do) as they please, and they possess neuroses and psychoses for a crowd several times the size. All of which makes for an interesting group of suspects, including Elizabeth who, with Eileen, the deceased bride-to-not-be-after all, out of the picture, is back in the running for a great-aunt's bequest of $200.000 to the first of her great-nieces or nephews to marry.
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