DID YOU DECLARE THE CORPSE? by Patricia Sprinkle (Signet)

Georgia magistrate MacLaren Yarborough joins a bus tour of the Scottish Highlands as part of a search for her roots. She's been warned by her husband and her travel companion that she's not to look for murder. What can she do, though, when murder comes looking for her companions? Sprinkle does what so few authors do--she throws a busload of new characters at the reader and then sketches them so fully that each is identifiable without recourse to a cast of characters—or my personal worst, page flipping. The murder happens in the first chapter, but we don't know who's the victim until much, much later. The is not only a good mystery, it's a primer in how to write a compelling story. Additionally, Jan Karon fans who like mysteries will love Mac!