Murder on Charity Lane

This series is wonderfully reminiscent of Armistead Maupin’s series Tales of the City, Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, and Only Murders in the Building—all of which have a wonderful sense of community, an abundance of love, and a good dollop of eccentricity. It’s six months or so after the first murder solved by Mrs. B., the Marigold Cottages’ eccentric proprietor, who follows the lives of her tenants by keeping the cottages very quiet—too quiet, she is beginning to think. So she invites a friend, Elsa, to occupy one of the empty homes well located in Santa Barbara. But when a tragic death occurs, and several of the residents have reason to believe that Elsa is the protagonist, Mrs. B. has no choice except to call together the members of the Murder Collective to figure out who is responsible, and why. Then there is another death, with Elsa again the suspect. Can the collective free Elsa from their many doubts?—Brian Kenney