Patrick Grant is an Oxford don whose specialty is Shakespeare. H also has an uncanny knack for solving murders.

He witnesses the body of a drowned man being fished out of the Thames, later finding out it is identified as an actor friend who should have been on stage. The police say suicide, but Grant thinks otherwise — the hair colour was wrong.

Are the deaths of a poodle and a middle-aged lady somehow related to the Thames body? If so, how and why?

Grant is low-keyed, which seems to get him some good results in the information department. Driven by his endless curiosity and the back-up of his instincts of human nature, Grant pieces the puzzle together and finds the big picture is larger than he thought.

I haven't read this author before or heard of the character. I will add her name to my TBR authors list. Her style is along the lines of Christie and Sayers, but without manor houses and the like. There is a nice, even pace to the story as it unfolds, but it isn't boggy. A good book to curl up with. ( )