ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
“A TRADITIONAL mystery gone crackers” is perhaps the best way to describe In the Crypt with a Candlestick by Daisy Waugh (Piatkus, £16.99).
Following the death of her ancient husband, Lady Tode is longing to escape into retirement. She can no longer tolerate the burdens of running a country house as both family home and tourist attraction.
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Six Billion Dollar Man, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Goodbye June, and Super Elfkins
Timeloop murder, trad family MomBomb, Sicilian crime pages and Craven praise
MANJEET RIDON relishes a novel that explores the guilty repressions – and sexual awakenings – of a post-war Dutch bourgeois family
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz



