A Good Man Gone

It is summer in St. Louis, and Mercy Watts finally has time away from her parents. Her father, a celebrated detective, and her nosy mother are off on a cruise, so Mercy assumes she is free of the investigating they usually hand her.

That ends when Gavin, a family friend, dies of a heart attack. Her father has one of his famous feelings about it and orders her to look into the death. Mercy tries to stay out of it. She is her father's daughter, though, and the pull is stronger than her resolve.

The case widens when a second death follows, a more grisly one: a bride dies on her wedding day. Mercy has to work out whether the two deaths are linked and whether Gavin was murdered after all.

This is a mystery with a family at its centre, told with a light, wry touch in the way Mercy handles her parents' demands. It belongs to a series, and Mercy's loyalty to her relatives drives her from reluctant helper to a woman who cannot let the questions go.