What begins as a search for a stolen painting at the home of the late Dorothy Padgett soon turns into a tangled mystery in a crumbling Yorkshire country house, cut off by a violent snowstorm. The housekeepers are not who they seem, several people die, and Jackson Brodie once again finds himself at the centre of the chaos—much to the frustration of Reggie Chase and, by the end, Louise Monroe as well. As always, Kate Atkinson blends mystery with wit, and I found myself laughing out loud more than once.
“Arabella had produced twin girls, Flora and Faye. (More girls! No one wanted girls.) They were buxom teenagers with appalling manners, glued to their phones as though they were life-support machines. They would have to be surgically removed from them. ‘Flora and Fauna,’ Lady Milton often found herself accidentally calling them. One heard a lot about anorexia in young girls, but really it wouldn’t do the twins any harm.”