A Brush with Death_ A Penny Brannigan My – Elizabeth J. Duncan

When cleaning out the Welsh cottage she inherited from her good friend Emma, Penny Brannigan finds letters that allude to an affair Emma had with artist Alys Jones in 1967. When Penny learns that Alys died in an unsolved hit-and-run, she decides to track down the killer. Complicating matters, Penny and her friend Victoria are in the process of buying property to expand their manicure business, and Penny’s relationship with Detective Inspector Gareth Davies seems to be cooling. Duncan spends time developing the personal lives of her appealing main and secondary characters, and it is their relationships that provide much of the novel’s appeal, along with the well-realized Welsh setting and the many details about running a small business. Readers who enjoy the English village cozy mysteries of Dorothy Cannell and Nancy Atherton will want to take a look at this series.