Death Comes to Marlow

The second installment in the Marlow Murder Club mystery series follows Judith Potts, a 78-year-old cryptic crossword setter who lives alone in an Arts and Crafts mansion on the river Thames in the English town of Marlow. The previous summer, Judith and her two friends, Becks Starling, the wife of Marlow's vicar, and Suzie Harris, a dog-walker and community radio presenter, helped the local police solve a string of murders. Now, in January, their quiet lives are upended when death strikes again.

One morning, Judith receives an unexpected phone call from Sir Peter Bailey, the head of one of Marlow's most prominent families, inviting her to a drinks party that afternoon, the day before his wedding to Jenny Page, his live-in nurse. When Judith jokes that she hopes no one will be murdered, Sir Peter reacts with startling agitation, blurting out that no one is "frightened for their life." Puzzled, Judith invites Suzie and attends the party at Sir Peter's grand Georgian mansion, White Lodge, where they reunite with Becks.

The celebration is disrupted when Tristram Bailey, Sir Peter's son, arrives uninvited, sparking a furious confrontation. Jenny flees inside in tears. Minutes later, just after the church bells strike three, an enormous crash and the sound of shattering glass erupt from inside the house. Tristram leads the rush indoors and breaks down the locked study door with a fire extinguisher. Inside, Sir Peter lies crushed beneath a massive mahogany cabinet filled with antique laboratory equipment. Jenny rushes downstairs from an upper balcony, checks for a pulse, and finds none. Judith observes that no one could have been hiding in the room and that the windows have not been opened in years.

Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik, who worked with Judith's group the previous summer, arrives to investigate. Judith argues the death is suspicious, pointing to Sir Peter's anxious phone call and two physical oddities: The door hinges have been oiled with olive oil, and the olive oil can in the kitchen has been wiped clean of fingerprints. Suzie discovers boot prints outside the study window with a distinctive cut across the left sole, and Becks identifies them as women's Hunter wellies. Despite these leads, Tanika's superior, Detective Inspector Gareth Hoskins, returns from extended sick leave, reclaims the case, and demotes Tanika to a clerical role, insisting the death is not suspicious because no one can explain how a killer escaped a locked room.

Tanika secretly enlists Judith and her friends to continue investigating. The family lawyer, Andrew Husselbee, reveals that Sir Peter wrote a new will the previous month and called it his "insurance policy" because he feared Tristram was trying to kill him. When the women open the bedroom safe, it is empty. Digital forensics uncover four deleted text messages sent to Sir Peter from an untraceable phone, each followed by a 5,000-pound cash withdrawal totaling 20,000 pounds.

The women methodically investigate each suspect. Rosanna Bailey, Sir Peter's firstborn daughter who manages the family estate, admits she was hiding in the bedroom wardrobe trying to crack the safe when the crash occurred, meaning she and Jenny were both upstairs. Lady Bailey, Sir Peter's ex-wife, confesses she was lurking in the garden bushes to spy on Jenny; a boatman confirms he saw her emerge seconds after the crash, clearing her. Chris Shepherd, the family gardener, is behind the anonymous texts: He blackmailed Sir Peter for 20,000 pounds by posing as a relative of a lawyer who possessed documents proving the Bailey family cheated Chris's grandfather out of business profits. Mechanics confirm Chris was at a garage all afternoon. Chris also reveals that Sir Peter caught Tristram handling a jar of cyanide from the study cabinet and accused him of attempted poisoning, leading to Tristram's expulsion from the house.

The torn-up will is found buried in a compost heap. Reassembled, it states that Sir Peter left his entire estate to Jenny and names Tristram as a suspect should Sir Peter die in suspicious circumstances. Andrew confirms the destroyed will has no legal standing, meaning the old will leaving everything to Tristram remains valid. While searching the study, Judith notices that a bronze gavel is missing from its stand on the mantelpiece and that the cabinet had once been secured to the wall by a hook but has been unhooked.

Using a GPS tracker planted in Tristram's car, the women discover he has been secretly visiting Sarah Fitzherbert, who runs a coffee van near the train station. Sarah, involved with Tristram since they were teenagers, claims she was at a pub called the Bounty at 3 p.m. on the day of the murder. When no one there initially remembers her, Sarah becomes the prime suspect as Tristram's possible accomplice. Then Sarah is found dead in her home, poisoned by cyanide from the missing bottle in Sir Peter's study. Tristram is arrested. But the case turns again when a final Bounty staff member confirms he spoke with Sarah at 3:03 p.m. on the day Sir Peter died, giving every suspect an airtight alibi.

Judith's breakthrough comes from an observation about light. Lady Bailey reported a flash on the study windows at 3 p.m., but in winter the sun would have moved to the other side of the house by afternoon. The flash was not sunlight but burning magnesium tape, a metal ribbon that burns with incandescent brightness. Judith finds the missing gavel buried in the fireplace ash, confirming her theory.

When DI Hoskins releases Tristram on bail, Judith realizes Jenny is the actual killer and sets a trap. Tristram breaks into White Lodge and attacks Jenny; Tanika, secretly staking out the house, subdues and arrests him. Then Suzie and Becks stage a falling-out with Judith and leave, while Tanika hides behind the study cabinet with her phone recording.

Alone with Jenny, Judith reconstructs the full scheme. Jenny and Tristram became lovers in Florence before Jenny ever met Sir Peter, and Jenny groomed him into a plot to kill his father. She seduced Sir Peter, got him to propose, and planned his death for the day before the wedding so she would appear to have no motive, since she would inherit nothing if he died unmarried. On the day of the murder, Tristram pre-set the study by arranging glass equipment on the floor, tipping the cabinet forward, and holding it in place with magnesium tape stretched to a wall hook, with a fuse running into the fireplace and up the chimney flue. Jenny called Sir Peter into the study and struck him on the head with a heavy piece of laboratory equipment. She locked the room, ran upstairs, and ignited the fuse. The flame raced down the flue and burned through the tape, releasing the cabinet onto Sir Peter's body and creating the illusion that the fall killed him. Jenny stole the will from the safe and buried it to frame Tristram. When Sarah threatened to reclaim Tristram's loyalty, Jenny poisoned her with the cyanide. As Judith draws out damning details, Tanika steps out with her recording, and Jenny is arrested for both murders.

In the aftermath, Judith explains to Rosanna that English law prevents anyone from profiting from a crime they helped commit, meaning Tristram cannot inherit. The entire estate passes to Rosanna, breaking 400 years of male primogeniture, the Bailey family tradition in which the eldest male heir inherits everything. The three friends celebrate: Suzie finds a sustainable balance between her radio work and dog-sitting business, and Becks tells her husband about the secret investment portfolio she built, receiving his full support. Judith glances at a locked room containing papers from her own husband's suspicious death decades earlier, decides she is not yet ready to face that mystery, and settles in with crumpets, sloe gin, and puzzles.