Every Trick in the Rook: A Birds of a Feather Mystery by Marty Wingate

Julia's life is going well.  She's organizing events and bringing tourists to town and she's living with Michael, a man she loves.  She should have known it was too good to be true.  When they find a dead man in the unused summer house on the castle property, she wonders why he was there but she should be wondering who he was.  It was her ex-husband...

Alibi and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published March 7th.

When the press descend on Julia and Michael, he decides to leave for a while and take a break.  He thinks that will keep the journalists away from Julia.  He's mistaken.  And Juliet is afraid he might not be back.  As it is, as long as the case hasn't been solved, she can't ask him to come back.  Since they are looking at them both as suspects, she decides she better look for the actual killer.

Ms. Wingate always peppers her stories with weird characters.  That makes the story interesting and fun to read.  I mean, how often does the ex-wife to keep the ashes of her long gone husband by his sister?  And who's to guess that the weird journalist might be a new partner with her gay brother?  Or that her ex-husband had such a strange girlfriend?

As you live through events, watch relationships rise and fall, and work out who the killer is, you're well entertained.  I especially loved the rook that was in the story.  He was her protector and she needed one.  This one is the best one I've read in this series.  Ms. Wingate does it right.