Lucy In Mourning — Brad Field

On her honeymoon in Brussels in 1958, Lucy's husband is killed by a hit-and-run driver. When her husband's family arrives, Lucy is the only one who speaks enough French to deal with the police, the hotels, the funeral arrangements. At a late moment in the airport, she notes a clue that her husband's death was no accident, but murder. She lets the family get on the plane and stays to investigate. Amid some wry comedy, she deals with the first suspects, who find her a fascinating beauty, for her a tiresome irrelevance. And they all have alibis. She finds, from Brad Field's earlier novel, Lucy Musing, the only man in Europe she can trust, old Hertzig, a courier for a Swiss bank, to help her with the German and the Italian. Lucy slowly re-constructs herself. A bereaved bride, in mourning clothes and veil, becomes a calculating executive of action.