Grand Slam (A Cassandra Swann Bridge Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: This grand slam is really only game in 4-hearts.
Review: Cassandra Swann is worth meeting and this mystery is an excellent introduction. Swann's knowledge of bridge and eternal meddling in the death of Lady Portia Wickham are considerably less impressive than her relationships with what is left of her family and the men in her life. Yet, somehow, Susan Moody has woven the stories together so well that you can't imagine finding out about one without the other. As a heroine, Cassandra Swann is just neurotic enough to be interesting; and good-hearted enough to be endearing

Rating:
Summary: Don't worry, you don't have to know bridge to read this book
Review: This is my first "read" in the series centered on Cassandra Swann, British bridge player and amateur detective extraordinaire. I enjoyed the book and will read more in the series, although I think perhaps some judicious editing could have improved the book (at times the plot got sufficiently convoluted that I was getting confused and I read a LOT of mysteries).

Cassandra has been hired as bridge partner to a wealthy man who is playing in a high stakes game in a - you guessed it -- English country house, complete with butler. As it turns out, the butler is from an upper class family himself, and his mother is an animal rights activist, so you can see this isn't your typical English cozy mystery. A woman is killed at the country house the night of the bridge game, and Cassandra gets involved with the investigation -- and with one of the policeman investigating the murder.

There are a lot of threads in this mystery and quite a few characters (we're talking about a fairly large bridge party not to mention various and sundry other suspects). Some of the threads never lead anywhere except to be followed up in the next book in the series.

What I liked best was the vividness of Cassandra and her life in a country cottage. The plot held my attention and I looked forward to getting back to the book when I had to put it down. There was a fair amount of "romance" in the book, and whether you'll like that will depend on whether you like romance in your mysteries.