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A murder mystery develops as a couple tries to clear the name of the deceased son.

Death Walked in (Death on Demand Mysteries No, 18) begins with people arriving on a South Carolina island in winter for the birthday party of Geoff Grant, a well-known town proprietor who has adopted the children of his current and past wives. One of the sons, Ben, reflects on the island and on Geoff as he gets closer to the island. As more people come for the party, we meet and learn the motives behind their arrivals. That night, someone breaks into the Grant home and steals a valuable coin collection worth almost two million dollars.

Then we meet mystery bookstore owner Annie Darling, and her husband, Max, who are restoring an old home, the Franklin House, on an island in South Carolina. Max runs as an agency that helps solve problems and usually ends up working as a detective even though he claims he does not run a detective agency. One day Max gets a call from a woman claiming she’s hidden something in the house. Max ignores it since he’s previously been burned by helping a young woman in distress. He tells his secretary to have the “frightened sounding woman” call the police instead of him. However, Annie hears about the call and decides to investigate. She finds out who the woman is and where she lives and learns that it is Gwen Jamison.

Hart gives us a glimpse into Gwen’s world when we see her hearing a fox entering her hen house. As she is outside, she spots someone lurking around in her family’s graveyard. She watches and observes them burying something in the cemetery and it is then that she realizes who they are—yet we, as readers, are left in the dark. We also see Gwen thinking about her sons and although she implies they are troubled (although one is a ‘good” son), we aren’t given any further details.

Annie rushes to Gwen’s home and arrives in time to find Gwen dying after being shot. At the same time, someone breaks into the Franklin House. Max sees them in the distance and is shot at while chasing the intruder. Later, Max hears about Annie being questioned for finding Gwen and he rushes to her side. The two realize that the shooting and break-in must be related. They find out that Gwen was connected to the missing coin collection.  It appears that Gwen had hidden the coins at Franklin House. Annie and Max begin to wonder if that was the motive for Gwen’s murder.

Soon the plot thickens as Gwen’s son, Robert, is accused and Max and Annie begin investigating to prove his innocence. They try to figure if the coins are hidden in the Franklin House and if that’s what the intruder was looking for. We learn Robert has an alibi (although not a solid one) but it is not enough to satisfy the police as Gwen’s blood is found in his car and so is the gun used to shoot her. Questions begin to surface such as is Robert really innocent and if so, who is trying to set him up by planting evidence? And where are gold coins?

The books has all the elements that make a mystery easy to sink into: a unique setting (in this case, an island), the fact one of the character owns a mystery bookstore and another isn’t a professional detective, but close to it. Every character you meet has a backstory that the readers are privy to and, as the book starts, we are quickly introduced to several characters right off the bat. The fact there are so many characters (as well as their motives for coming to the party, background, etc.) are quickly introduced makes the story a bit confusing. This is Hart’s 18th book in the Death on Demand series, so perhaps it will just be latecomers to the series who are confused by this.

The story is fast-paced with plenty of details. Hart does an excellent job of describing her characters, settings, and showing us what motivates the characters.
Hart’s been compared to Agatha Christie a lot and I would add Joan Lowery Nixon to the comparison as well. Mystery lovers will get immersed into this story quickly as the focus is on the killer’s motives and the history of the characters. Death Walked In is sure to delight mystery fans.

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