This is a great mystery with one annoying romance subplot that had me rolling my eyes. Anyway it's winter in Torquay. Laura and Alex Carter are identical twins, and now one has killed herself. However, it's a bit up in the air which one is dead. Lily Pascale is a literature lecturer with a sideline in murder investigations who takes the case on because she really doesn't want to apply for the promotion she's being pushed into that will trap her in academia. (Can't blame her. I'd rather investigate murders myself.) The case begins to develop twists--which girl is dead, was she actually murdered and another murder, of course.
This is the third novel in this tart noir series. In my opinion, the first book was good, the second I could not get into and this is actually very good. Thomas has obviously got a checklist of classic noir points (and even references noir in the characters' conversations!) that she's working into the story and it's all good and done skillfully. The pace and plotting are excellent and I'd look for the series in the future. Lily is pretty level-headed and not angsty and annoying. I found her romance with the secretive Jack to be utter ridiculous and over the top (in love? puh-lease! they don't even know each other!), but cast your mind back to the days of film noir and recall that sort of crap was always going on. In short, recommended.
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