When her internationally known journalist husband dies shortly after his retirement, Eva Jackson returns to Taviscombe, where she grew up. One of her many tasks is to sort through her husband’s papers, but she simply cannot face it yet and asks old friend Sheila Malory and cousin Rosemary, Sheila’s best friend, to help her lug the boxes into the shed, where she promptly forgets them. Soon after that, there is an unfortunate fire in the shed, apparently due to faulty wiring, but the papers aren’t damaged and the same group removes them to the house for safekeeping. And soon after *that*, Eva is dead, from leaving her diabetes untreated while suffering a respiratory illness, and her son Daniel and his partner Patrick move into the cottage, only to have patterns repeating themselves….This is the 20th and final volume of the Mrs. Malory mystery series, ended not because anything drastic happens to the main characters but because Ms. Holt herself died. As a finale, it weaves in all the elements of this cozy series: comfortable relationships between villagers, a generally benign look at small-town life (including such mundane matters as cleaning one’s kitchen cupboards and preparing coffee mornings at the local town hall), and an inquisitive amateur detective who happens to know everybody in the village and whom everybody feels comfortable confiding in. Plus, as happens frequently in this series, a solution that seems to come out of left field but that is completely reasonable upon consideration. I shall miss Sheila Malory and her friends and her pets - and Taviscombe too! Recommended. ( )

Mrs. Malory And Death Is A Word is the twentieth book in the Mrs. Malory series.

This is the first book that I have read in this classic type English country mystery. Sad that there will be no more books in this series.

Eva Jackson has returned to childhood village and the death of her investigative reporter husband. She plans on writing a book about his life and has stored his notes, scripts and articles he has written in her garage. When a fire, that does little damage, happens, it is attributed to the electrical wiring in the old garage. When Eva dies under mysterious causes, Mrs. Malory begins to wonder if her death was really due to some kind of illness. Then when Eva's son, a food critic is killed in a hit and run accident, it is time for her determine if they are related and to find out what secrets might be in the husband's papers.

An enjoyable and quick read. ( )