Jennifer Jackson – Literary Agent

A Spider on the Stairs by Cassandra Chan

Christmas in Yorkshire is a nasty combination of pouring rain and murder.

Amateur sleuth Phillip Bethancourt, who’s just broken up with his girlfriend Marla, is spending Christmas at his family manor house. His pal, Scotland Yard Detective Jack Gibbons, who’s just returned to duty after sick leave, has been sent to York to check out a murder that might be the work of a serial killer known as Ashdon. Both friends are cheered by the prospect of a juicy murder. Gibbons, certain that the corpse found in a shop is Ashdon’s work, sends for DS Brumby, who is surprised to find an Ashdon case so far from the killer’s usual haunts in southern England. Then Jody Farraday’s body is found in Mittlesdon’s bookshop in York. Though the murder this time doesn’t fit Ashdon’s style, Gibbons and Bethancourt take up residence in the Bethancourt family’s York townhouse and investigate. Bethancourt knows Mittlesdon’s, where free-spirited Farraday used to work, and has an old flame working there now. But his inside knowledge is of little avail. So many people could have possessed a key that the suspect list is large, and Jody’s unusual background and wandering ways make it more difficult to pinpoint a motive until the sleuths learn more, much more, about the victim.

Chan (Village Affairs, 2006, etc.) beefs up the mystery while retaining the Golden Age feel to produce her best work to date. –Booklist

Book 3: Trick of the Mind
A solid plot and a view of some of London’s more obscure neighborhoods enhance Chan’s third contemporary cozy to feature amateur sleuth Phillip Bethancourt and his best friend, Scotland Yard Det. Sgt. Jack Gibbons (after 2006’s Village Affairs). When someone shoots Jack, who’s recently been transferred to the Yard’s arts theft division, Phillip thinks the crime has something to do with his friend’s investigation of an antique jewelry heist. Jack’s mentor at the Yard, Detective Chief Inspector Carmichael, provides access to the forensic evidence in the theft case, introduces Phillip to possible suspects and sets up a good dynamic between the official and unofficial investigators involved. While progress in the shooting case is as slow as Jack’s recovery from his wounds, Chan pulls off an ending as surprising as it is fitting. –Publishers Weekly

Phillip Bethancourt and Jack Gibbons Mysteries
Book 1: The Young Widow
Book 2: Village Affairs