Collecting rent at one of her cottages one day, the motor scooter riding lady finds tenant Basil Thorncroft murdered in the midst of one of his paintings. Lady Elizabeth doesn’t like the thought of a murderer running around Sitting Marsh. When the local constabulary is less than helpful she decides to take things into her own hands and begins investigating the artist’s death on her own.

In the meantime, the rumor of a German spy in the village is running rampant and the ladies of the Housewives League plan stakeouts to try to determine if the spy is the strange birdwatcher who has just arrived in the village, or the dandy who has been keeping company with young Marlene, the sister of Lady Elizabeth’s secretary, Polly. After retrieving a partially finished painting from Thorncroft’s effects, Lady Elizabeth is certain the artist painted in a submarine and was trying to tell the townspeople that he had seen the spy and knew who it was.

Armed with the thought that the murder and the spy are connected, and certain that there is a spy amongst them, Lady Elizabeth sets out to unmask a spy and to stop a killer before someone else stumbles onto the spy and winds up like Basil Thorncroft.

Once again, Kate Kingsbury has created a most delightful mystery starring the ever-engaging Lady Elizabeth. A young woman trying to carry on her father’s legacy after her parents’ deaths, she has learned to be strong for her subjects and is very resourceful and resilient. There is much romantic tension between Elizabeth and handsome American Earl. Though he has a wife and children in the States, Earl swears he and his wife are all but estranged. Other villagers, including the members of the Housewives League and Polly and her sister Marlene, play bigger roles in this story. Longtime family butler Martin is charming as ever, even as he becomes a bit dotty, bringing out the caring side of even the most normally stiff upper-lipped servants.

Once Lady Elizabeth acquires the painting, it becomes very clear who the spy must be and what Basil Thorncroft was trying to warn residents of, but this won’t stop readers from enjoying another delightful visit to Sitting Marsh.

Paint By Murder is a quick, one-sitting read that will quickly transport readers eager to return to this quaint English village.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry