Reviewed by: Mary Lynn, MyShelf.Com
Buy a Copy at Jacobyte Books

Belinda Lawrence is stunned when a great aunt she's only seen once leaves her a cottage in a small, picturesque English village outside of Bath. It soon becomes apparent that no one in the village of Milford is what he or she seems, including her new next door neighbors, the handsome real estate agent intent on getting her to sell her new home, or even the family lawyer.

Everyone Belinda encounters seems to be hiding something. She is soon convinced that her aunt's death, ruled an accident by the police, was actually murder. This conviction is solidified when her next-door neighbor is killed. The house contains a secret someone is willing to kill for. Did the murderer intend to kill the neighbor or was Belinda herself the intended victim? Before she decide, her lawyer disappears and Belinda fears that she herself is in danger.

In the first half of the book, Mr. Kavanagh managed to do what one of my favorite authors, M C Beaton, does so well, incorporate humor within the confines of a credible mystery. I laughed out loud several times. Unfortunately, the humorous element didn't extend beyond those early chapters. Nevertheless, the mystery was sufficiently engrossing to keep me guessing the identity of the murderer. Although the solution came as a shock, I did not feel as if I'd been blindsided, because Mr. Kavangh played fair and the clues were there to be interpreted by the discerning reader.

Although, with their habit of continually snapping and glaring at each other, I found the heroine and her "love" interest to be a trifle trying, overall, I found Capable of Murder to be a very capable mystery.

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Mary Lynn is the author of "Dear Cari."