July 27, 2015
In Kelly’s enjoyable ninth Claire Breslinsky mystery (after 2006’s Pack Up the Moon), Claire reunites with her niece Jenny Rose Cashin, who was raised in Ireland by two maiden aunts after being abandoned by Claire’s teenage sister. Oliver Cupsand, the owner of Twillyweed, a Long Island mansion, hires Jenny Rose as an au pair to Wendell, a boy Oliver adopted with the wife who has now left him. When visiting Jenny Rose, Claire becomes entranced by a cottage near Twillyweed and, seeking a new start, relocates there. Claire soon becomes intrigued with the assault on a priest at a nearby parish during the theft of a moon dial, a valuable 17th-century church-owned art relic. Coincidentally, Wendell previously slipped two moonstones to Jenny Rose that turn out to be the eyes of the dial. When Twillyweed’s housekeeper is found strangled, Claire suspects there’s a connection between the two crimes and starts sleuthing. The plot builds to a satisfying resolution.