A Brush with Death

by Elizabeth J. Duncan

Ebook, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

Fic Mystery Duncan

Publication

Macmillan

Description

In the Welsh cottage she inherited from schoolteacher Emma Teasdale, Penny Brannigan discovers a package of letters that reveal Emma's lesbian affair with a Liverpool artist who was killed in a suspicious hit-and-run accident.

User reviews

LibraryThing member cbl_tn

While moving into the cottage she inherited from her friend, Emma, Penny Brannigan discovers a decades old mystery. Penny learns that a local artist who painted a picture hanging in the cottage was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run accident. Who killed the artist and why? Penny can't feel at home

in the cottage until she finds answers to these questions.

I thought this book suffered a little from sophomore slump. Nothing about it was quite as interesting as the first book in the series. The relationships between Penny and the supporting characters haven't quite gelled. Her new business partner, Victoria, keeps reminding Penny that their business suffers when Penny spends time sleuthing that should be spent working. Penny is still unsure about the future of her budding relationship with DCI Davies.

Possible spoiler: It's not really possible for readers to piece together the clues to form their own conclusions since crucial information isn't available to Penny (or to the reader) until the end of the book. Also, some readers might want to know that the historical part of the book involves a lesbian romance.

I like the location and the characters have the potential to develop into a group of people I'd like to have as friends. I'll continue with the next book in the series and hope it improves from here.

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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace

A Brush with Death picks up where Cold Light of Mourning left off. We rejoin Penny Brannigan right after she has moved into her dear friend Emma's cottage (Emma died in the earlier book). While cleaning and clearing out some of Emma's belongings Penny comes across a secret Emma has kept for more

than thirty years, a lesbian romance with an artist named Alys from Liverpool, England. The relationship was cut short when Emma's beloved was killed by a hit and run driver. For years the death was ruled an accident until Penny uncovers clues indicating wicked foul play. Thus begins the mystery. Most of the same characters in Cold Light of Mourning return to help Penny solve the crime. I have to admit I didn't enjoy this one as much as Cold Light of Mourning. I think it's because Duncan's main character Penny seemed to be a bit more of a busybody in this one. This one had more of a "Murder, She Wrote" feel than the other. What I appreciated the most was the continuation of a lot of details from the first book. Penny's relationships with individuals as well as her standing in the community as the place to get a manicure. Her relationship with a boyfriend grows as does her business.

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LibraryThing member murderbydeath

This book was ok. I didn't much like the relationship between the protagonist and her "best friend", Victoria. I thought this relationship was too accelerated in the first book and in this one, I found it annoying, stilted, and a bit herky-jerky. I'm not against reading a third one, if released,

but I'm not going to rush out to get it on publication.

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