annieb123
Written on May 14, 2022
A Body at the Altar is the fourth Kate Palmer village cozy mystery by Dee MacDonald. Released 18th Oct 2021, it's 240 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.
Readers who enjoy British village cozy mysteries are in for a treat with this series. Series protagonist Kate is a village nurse who is involved with a local expat American retired inspector. She keeps finding herself in the middle of village mysteries from poisoned pen letters to murder and the crimes show no signs of stopping.
I liked the characterizations here; the characters live and breathe and the dialogue was never clunky. There were several seemingly disparate plot threads which intertwined into a satisfying denouement and resolution. Despite being the fourth book in the series, it worked well as a standalone, though there are some minor spoilers for earlier books if read out of order. I was engaged enough with the writing and the mystery, that I've picked up the previous books in the series.
Four stars. This is definitely one for British village cozy readers. Very well written and constructed. Clean language and mostly off-page violence. The clues and plotting are "fair play" and readers are invited to figure out the puzzle alongside Kate.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.