In the second book of this immensely popular cozy-mystery series, a Spanish–Finnish wedding party ends in death.
Author: Eppu Nuotio
Finnish original: Anopinhammas (Ellen Lähde Investigates #2)
Publisher: Otava, 2019
Genre: crime, cozy mystery
Number of pages: 254 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English synopsis
Rights sold: Latvia, Petergailis
While touring the gardens of Andalusia, cheerful Finnish pensioner Ellen Lähde makes the acquaintance of a Spanish-Finnish wedding party. Carmen, the Spanish bride, decides Ellen’s appearance is a good omen and invites her and a date to the wedding.
The next morning, Ellen wakes to a shriek. She thinks the raucous peacocks are to blame, but when she comes down for breakfast she discovers a horrific surprise waiting in the hotel lobby: Carmen’s brand-new mother-in-law has just died of a heart attack. A woman of action, Ellen offers to stay in Spain and help the grief-stricken family with practical arrangements.
The mother-in-law’s death changes the young couple’s plans: they are forced to move to the countryside to help Mikael’s father with the farm. Life in cold and dark Finland proves a test for Carmen, and the active hostility of Mikael’s aunt doesn’t help. A tragedy that took place decades before, when Mikael’s paternal grandmother drowned in the bog, seems to cast a pall over the family. Why are its mother-in-laws plagued by bad luck?
The keen-eyed, well-meaning, and perpetually helpful Ellen Lähde gladly digs in to the murky stew of secrets in this second instalment of the Ellen Lähde Investigates series.
“In the present blood-and-dystopia-saturated entertainment industry, the cozy detective novel Nuotio offers is a breath of fresh air. […] The book’s sweetness, warmth, and mundanity are a joy, as is the romance that blazes up between two pensioners: Ellen Lähde and the Andalusian Carlos.”
– Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
Also available:
Those Deadly Bells (Ellen Lähde Investigates #1) (2017)
The Showy Strangler (Ellen Lähde Investigates #3) (2020)
Love Like a Strange Land (2021)
About the author:
Eppu Nuotio