Nor does it help that Walter and others are increasingly becoming worried about the amount of time Leslie is spending with Liz… No reader will be surprised that when their trip brings them past Salcott St Mary, Leslie goes missing one night. Salcott St Mary where most of the action takes place, has become somewhat of an artistic community and Leslie’s introduction into it certainly turns the tension up. Of course Leslie ingratiates himself sufficiently to get his visit extended beyond the weekend, suggesting Walter and himself produce a book together on the local river, from source to sea. Impulsive, Lavinia Fitch, the aunt in question invites Leslie down to her country abode to meet Walter, suggesting that he gets a lift from Walter’s fiancée Liz. Picking her up at a party he comes across a stranger, the American Leslie Searle, who is keen to track down Walter Whitman, nephew to the aunt whose party it is.

Inspector Grant begins this story by taking his actress friend Marta Hallard out to dinner.

Managing to keep up to this goal so far, but then I am only 2-3 months in! I thought I couldn’t remember much about this novel and the opening scenes were definitely not ones I recalled, but as I got into the book more, the solution did come back to me, one which feels quite GAD-ish, yet is situated in a very un-GAD novel…

This is the next instalment in my mystery re-read project, in which I plan to re-read 2 mystery novels a month.

Brat farrar book summary