Murder in Just Cause: A Doyle & Acton Mystery by Anne Cleeland

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Doyle and Acton Mysteries #9
Publication Date: 2/24/19
Number of Pages: 251

I am always excited when a new addition to the Doyle and Acton Mysteries series is released. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It is well written, well plotted and the characters are complex and interesting. You can read this as a stand-alone book, but to get the real flavor for the characters, you really need to read at least the first couple of books – but why not read them all, they are all good, fun and quirky.

Scotland Yard has been through scandal after scandal over the last several books and many – if not most – of the higher-ups are either jailed or removed from their jobs. They are working short-handed, but hopefully, all of the bad actors and the scandals are behind them so they can concentrate on protecting the citizens and providing justice.

It is Doyle’s first day back from maternity leave and the powers-that-be have decided to ease her back into the routine by having her assist DS Munoz on her cases. They are almost immediately dispatched out to the scene of a dead body that they assume is an overdose. It is in the slum area that is riddled with drugs, so the assumption is a reasonable one. However, when they arrive, they discover that it is not self-induced – not accidentally nor purposefully. They have a murder on their hands.

Acton quickly arrives on the scene because he’s not happy that Doyle has been sent into that neighborhood. To say that Acton is a determinedly protective husband would be putting it very mildly. Not long after he arrives, he realizes that there is more to this scene than meets the eye. He quickly comes to understand that it was a set-up as a way to ambush DS Munoz and the only reason it didn’t go as planned was that Doyle was there also.

We soon learn that the last of the corruption isn’t yet out of Scotland Yard and that if things aren’t handled with finesse, there will be yet another scandal. As usual – Acton is behind the scenes manipulating things to work out the way he wants – and he keeps poor Doyle in the dark. Doesn’t matter, she always figures him out and calls him out on it.

This is a lovely, fun, quirky, and interesting read