Nine Men Dancing
Roger the Chapman Mysteries
By Kate Sedley 

     Roger the Chapman has itchy feet again, and an expensive town house to keep up. So he dons his pack and goes off into the wilds again, encountering the remote village of Lower Brockhurst just as he is ready to return home. He has stumbled upon a hotbed of trouble here and is soon enlisted to find a missing girl by her mother and grandmother with whom he is staying. The girl was the village beauty and a troublemaker, playing off men against one another and leaving behind angry folk in her wake. It is evident that some people know more about the affair than they are letting on, and Roger will have to work quickly to avoid more bloodshed.

     This is an easy-to-read tale, just the thing for curling up with by the fire. The author has an intimate knowledge of the area and its past and this shines through, giving it an authentic ring despite any coziness buffing off the edges of hard reality. As with the other books in the series it is admirably paced tale, with plenty of incidents happening thick and fast giving a feeling of a lot happening in a short time. Having Roger as narrator gives the story immediacy and Sedley's ability to sketch in a background quickly brings it to life. Enjoyable and very readable.