10. O'Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor

I have a confession to make – I love cemeteries and gravestone art. I therefore was especially happy to find this author, who writes about a funerary art historian.

Sweeney St. George has had a turbulent life. Her father was a famous artist who killed himself and she is estranged from her alcoholic mother. Her boyfriend was killed the previous year in a London Underground bombing and her position at the college she teaches at is scorned upon as not being too serious. When her friend Toby DiMarco invites her to rural Byzantium, Vermont, where a famous art colony used to be, she seizes the chance – especially when she finds out the town has a famous distinctive gravestone. Mary Denholm died by drowning in 1890, and her gravestone is an elaborate monument featuring the girl in a boat, being watched by a death figure. Local resident Ruth Kimball, a descendant of Mary’s, thinks she has clues as to who made the sculpture, and agrees to help Sweeney, yet ends up being killed shortly before Sweeney arrives in town. When the town suffers a series of robberies and other deaths during her visit, Sweeney becomes a sleuth and tries to solve the mystery of Byzantium.

This is the first book of the series, which now has four titles in the series. The author clearly knows her 19th-century art facts, especially relating to funerary art, and the desolate winter rural setting is great for the mystery. Sweeney is a likeable character and although there is a lot going on with the plot and characters, Sweeney definitely draws readers into the hunt for the killer. I will definitely be reading more of this series.