Fruitful Bodies
A Novel
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In Bath, England, good health is an ancient tradition and a booming business. One local font of wellness is the Sulis Clinic, where the rich come for rest, repair, and repasts of strictly organic–and not terribly pleasant–cuisine. World-famous cellist Sara Selkirk has come to Sulis to admit her former music teacher. The poor dear has fallen into decrepitude, and has lately been the unlikely suspect in the shocking murder in a local pub.
Distracted from her upcoming Dvorak performance in Salzburg, Sara begins to wonder if there isn’t an odd link between Sulis and the murder. But another death soon rocks Sara to her core, leading her to a choice she will regret–and a killer she can no longer avoid.…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A follow-up to Fearful Symmetry, Joss's latest Sara Selkirk mystery offers another deftly textured evocation of an idyllic British locale. As the novel opens, famous cellist Selkirk comes across a former mentor whose musical star has drowned in alcoholism. She takes the woman in, despite the reservations of her boyfriend, police detective Andrew Poole, but when another friend, James, starts having stomach problems, she turns to Bath's fashionable Sulis Clinic. The clinic seems like the perfect answer to both problems until Sara is drawn into the murky relationships involving its governing triad: the charismatic but secretive proprietor; his unstable organic farmer son, Ivan; and Ivan's wife, Hilary, a fierce if often misguided protector of both the clinic and her husband's fragile equilibrium. When a Japanese guest at Ivan and Hilary's isolated B&B is murdered, Poole enters the case with a vigor that further strains his already tense relationship with Sara. Then, clinic patients begin to die, luring Sara herself into detection and danger. An overly complex plot and a series of contrivances weaken the story, but Joss portrays characters and relationships that are meaty enough to satisfy.
