"Scandal At Six"

If you've been following my blog, you know that I've been reading Ann Purser's Lois Meade Mystery Series in order.  I've just finished "Scandal At Six" and this one seems to have a little different flavor than the previous ones and it did keep me guessing right up until the end.

Although the Meade daughter, Josie, has married Matthew, a policeman nephew of Inspector Hunter Cowgill, she has not given up running the shop down the road from her parents, who own the building it is housed in.  Since she no longer lives in the shop above the store, it's common knowledge in the village that her parents will be looking for a suitable tenant to replace her.

When Josie opens the shop one day and comes face to face with a large snake and other ensuing creeping crawlies over the next few days, it is time for Lois to do some sleuthing to ensure her daughter's safety.  The snake belongs to a local zoo run by Robert Pettison and he is in need of a clearner so she installs Dot Nimmo to keep an eye on him and his zoo.

Pettison had dismissed his former cleaner and she had an accident at the zoo soon after but has survived and is recuperating slowly.  A zoo handler died when he was bitten by a snake that he trusted a little too much.

Unknown to Josie and her parents, the new tenant in the flat, Justin, is the nephew of Pettison and has been helping him important endangered species illegally to sell to select buyers.  When Justin's father dies, he wants to rid himself of the dealings with Pettison and is trying to figure out how to escape his uncle's clutches.  When his uncle accidentally falls down the stairs and ends up in the hospital, Justin and his uncle's mistress take over the running of the zoo and the last of the imported illegals.

Another death leads Lois and Inspector Cowgill to solving that murder as well as uncovering the illegalities at the zoo.  The murderer is a surprise but not a totally unlikely suspect!  pazt