Editorial Content for Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For

When one gets to a "certain age," it's a kick to read novels, especially murder mysteries, in which the main character is also of a "certain age." And in Leonie Swann's very clever Miss Sharp Investigates series, Agnes Sharp and her fellow pensioners, who all live together in Sunset Hall, prove that age is no deterrent to fighting crime.

In the third and last installment of this delightful series, one of the residents of Sunset Hall is getting married. Bernadette has not let the fact that she's blind stop her from an exciting life, and her upcoming marriage to Jack, a former killer-for-hire, is proof of that. Serendipitously, there is an unexpected opening for an event at the nearby posh Foxglove Manor, so Agnes and her good friend, Charlie, are working on planning the happy nuptials.

"To say that the ending is a blast is a complete understatement. It's really not what one expects from a murder mystery at all. But it actually makes perfect sense and is a wonderfully brilliant conclusion to this fabulously charming series."

However, Agnes can't get over the unsolved murder from the second book, AGNES SHARP AND THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME --- that of the verger from the local church, whom she found entangled in the ropes of the church bells. She had decided that she didn't want to be involved and left the scene for someone else to find and report to the police. The mystery in that novel has nothing to do with the verger, but in this book, the verger's murder (the police deemed it a suicide) jumps back into play.

A large part of the charm of this series is the group of people (and animals) who inhabit Sunset Hall. Edwina is an ex-Secret Service agent. She loves reptiles, two of which --- the boa constrictor Oberon and the tortoise Hettie --- feature prominently in the story. Theirs are the only chapters in which the narration is not from Agnes' point of view. Edwina is also suffering from the start of dementia…or, as it's politely put here, she is "mad as a box of frogs." There is Winston, who uses a wheelchair but is rock solid and steady. Marshall, formerly of the military and a gun lover, is enamored of Agnes. Charlie, as Charlotte is known, is tall, elegant and adventurous. She approaches life with excitement and is thrilled to be planning this wedding. Agnes, the bridesmaid, is not.

Agnes is complex. She's a retired police officer, and the house that is shared by the group was hers. She's reliant on her hearing aids and false teeth, both of which are problematic at times. Her legs are not as strong as she'd like; she uses a cane, and there’s a lift to get to the first floor (the second floor in American terminology). Agnes is straightforward and not given to romantic flights of fancy, so when Marshall asks her to marry him, she's not sure what she wants. She's happy with her life and determined to solve the problems that cross her path, such as murdered vergers and other dead bodies that seem to appear often.

When an unsigned letter composed of cut-out letters from magazines arrives at the house with a threatening message about the upcoming wedding, Agnes and company are determined to get to the bottom of it. Nothing can ruin Bernadette's happy day. There are several suspects and dead bodies strewn along the way, including one of the invited guests to the wedding, who also was a private detective whom Agnes had hired to look into Charlie's new beau to see if he might be the culprit.

There's plenty of humor. For example, in one scene during the wedding events, Agnes and the others must hide the body that Hettie, the tortoise who has run away from her ring bearer duties, discovers in the maze. Swann's clever narrative describes the challenges of the senior citizens who are not quite as agile and able as they might have been in their younger years. They try to carry what is literally dead weight to a place where the deceased will not be discovered (or uncovered) until after the nuptials are complete.

The action builds until the very end when we finally learn who the dastardly villain is and what his plan is for Bernadette and Jack. To say that the ending is a blast is a complete understatement. It's really not what one expects from a murder mystery at all. But it actually makes perfect sense and is a wonderfully brilliant conclusion to this fabulously charming series. It's also worth noting that translator Amy Bojang has done a magnificent job in ensuring that the humor and wit in the German version of the story shine just as brightly in English.