Changes

|title=Destroying Angel (Rose McQuinn Mysteries)

|author=Alanna Knight

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=288

|publisher=Allison & Busby

|isbn=978-0749080426

}}

In the late nineteenth century, Rose McQuinn, daughter of a police officer and herself a private investigator, has had to cope with many losses in her life. She lost her husband, Danny McQuinn, when he vanished in Arizona. Her latest beau, Jack Macmerry, seems to have found happiness with another lover. Then her step-brother, Vince, informs her that he has found the original owner of her deerhound, Thane. Although Rose refuses to hand the dog, her constant companion, back without a fight, she does agree to pay a visit to Thane's original owner, Hubert Staines, who lives in Northumberland. Leaving her beloved Edinburgh, she travels to Northumberland, where she finds that Hubert Staines had an ulterior motive for inviting her to stay. Moreover, there is something suspicious about Hubert's past and deaths that have occurred to his family members. Can Rose unravel the mystery without succumbing to death herself?

I was really pleasantly surprised by this book. I thought it was going to be stuffy and pretentious; instead, it is unaffected and entertaining. It isn't brilliant, but it certainly kept me occupied for a few hours and I think that fans of crime fiction will enjoy it, particularly if they like historical crime fiction. The author has written a number of other books featuring Rose, as well as some featuring her father, the legendary Inspector Faro, so I am looking forward to reading more of her work.

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