The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts

THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR OF JUDITH POTTS by Robert Thorogood is the latest in the Marlow Murder mystery series (also on PBS Masterpiece). When reading this story, it was incredibly easy to picture the interactions of three friends, Judith Potts, Susie Harris, and Becks Starling in their small English village. This time, some famous locals (a sportsman and a writer) are found dead and the friends set out to investigate, but something Is clearly not right as Judith is distracted, and police liaison Tanika Malik has been suspended. That shifts the burden of investigating to Becks and Susie while Thorogood seems to over-emphasize some of their less attractive qualities (e.g., rule-follower and boisterous, almost rudeness), perhaps to replace the tension that existed between the investigators and police in earlier series entries. They have even more to solve when Judith is threatened with exposure of being involved in her long-ago husband’s death. The ending is exciting, and readers will be gratified to learn more about Judith’s cryptic past.