It Had to Be You

The brother and sister team, Lily and Robert Brewster, return in 'It Had to Be You'. This cozy mystery is set in New York's Hudson Valley in 1933, as President Franklin Roosevelt was beginning to deal with the Great Depression. Lily and Robert, whose family wealth mostly disappeared in the Crash of '29, have inherited the Grace and Favor mansion from their uncle, with the proviso that they must live there and work in the area for ten years before the house is really theirs.

Presently, the Brewsters have taken temporary jobs in a small nursing home in the neighborhood. No sooner do they start than a crotchety patient, Sean Connor, is found murdered. Was he done in by his equally cantankerous wife, or perhaps by another member of his family-most of whom he has antagonized? Or was it one of the nursing home staff?

In this well-plotted story, with its nicely drawn, sometimes daffy cast of characters, Lily and Robert again help the local Police Chief Howard Walker solve the crime, actually two murders as readers will discover. It's nice, for a change, to have a mystery in which the amateur sleuths help a police chief who knows what he is doing. As the story unfolds, Agatha Award winning author Jill Churchill weaves into her tale a number of tidbits that give a feeling for life in the 1930s.

It Had to Be You makes for a light and entertaining read