A Brush with Death
A Penny Brannigan Mystery
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4.3 • 20 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When Penny Brannigan inherits a charming, old-fashioned cottage in the North Wales town of Llanelen, she soon realizes she has come into more than what real estate agents like to describe as a desirable period property: She's also acquired memories, mystery, and an unsolved, decades-old crime.
As Penny sorts through the belongings of her benefactor, a deceased teacher, she comes upon a packet of letters from a promising young Liverpool artist, A. Jones, who was killed in an accident in 1970. An artist herself, Penny sets out to discover who killed this painter, and is helped by a small group of townsfolk, including her business partner, Victoria Hopkirk. While at a retrospective art exhibition in Liverpool, Penny recognizes what she believes to be a watercolor painted by Jones. But it is attributed to another artist, leading her to suspect that art theft was at the heart of the case, and that Jones's death was no accident.
In her eagerly awaited sequel Duncan wonderfully revisits the bustling Welsh town and vibrant characters introduced in The Cold Light of Mourning. With its lyrical prose and tantalizing puzzle, A Brush with Death is a treat on many levels.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Duncan's absorbing second Penny Brannigan mystery (after 2009's The Cold Light of Mourning), the Canadian ex-pat and artist has unexpectedly inherited a cottage in the village of Llanelen, Wales, from her late schoolteacher friend, Emma Teasdale. When Penny and her boyfriend, Det. Insp. Gareth Davies, discover a stash of intriguing letters inside an old dresser of Emma's, she decides to put off remodeling her new home in order to investigate Emma's past. The letters reveal Emma had a lesbian relationship in the 1960s with an up-and-coming artist, Alys Jones, who died in a hit-and-run accident in 1970. The authorities never determined who was responsible. As Penny methodically cleans the cottage rooms, she wonders why only one of Alys's paintings can be located. Feeling a strong connection to a fellow artist, Penny enlists the aid of various villagers in her quest for the truth about Alys's "accident." Some early predictability doesn't spoil the cozy fun.
