This is a nice little mystery, not too long, not too grisly, with nice descriptions of the setting (Charleston) and interesting sidenotes on tea and biscuits, making a nice read on long and boring winter evenings, preferably spent by the fireside. But beware: The characters are a little shallow and really black & white at best, the plot is quite predictable (at the end of each chapter it's absolutely clear what will happen next) and the twist at the end is not too surprising (oh, so it wasn't one of those the heroine had strongly suspected from the start!). If you just want a nice little mystery, the book is fine, but if you are a connaisseur of detective stories, turn to authors who don't have their storylines from some manual on "How to write a whodunit" using well-known old schemes. ( )