The Crime and the Crystal

A retired professor finds that an amateur sleuth’s work is never done, even on an Australian holiday in this cozy mystery with “a dandy plot” (Publishers Weekly).

Andrew Basnett takes a break from his little English village to spend Christmas in the small Australia city of Adelaide. Visiting Tony, an old colleague with a newish wife, Basnett soon learns that a cloud hangs over the marriage. Jan, Tony’s bride, is widely believed to have murdered her first husband—a fact that is giving Tony second thoughts.

Things don’t get any more comfortable when, at a family dinner, one of the guests is killed with a chunk of the same crystal that had been Jan’s alleged murder weapon. And Jan herself has disappeared. Now it’s up to Professor Basnett to make the truth crystal clear.