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And Nothing But the Truth (Lindenshaw mysteries 7)
By Charlie Cochrane
Riptide Publishing, 2024
Five stars

Chief Inspector Robin Bright and his husband, school principal Adam Matthews, are back in another mystery for the Lindenshaw series.

I’ve loved the Lindenshaw mysteries, from the very first book, in which Detective Bright meets Adam Matthews, a schoolteacher caught up in a murder. In all of these books Charlie Cochrane develops the partnership between her two main characters, even as she pulls her readers into murders that are, by their nature, dark.

In this seventh book in the series, the brutal murder of a young man, recently widowed, starts the ball rolling as Robin and his team of young police officers tackle the complicated mystery bit by bit, teasing out the truth from a dizzying assortment of people and possibilities.

It’s a tragic murder, but its solution is in the stories of all the people engaged on both sides of the search for truth. The very essence of the cozy mystery is the fact that so much of the action takes place in Robin and Adam’s house; or in other equally convivial settings. This mild-mannered couple bring their own dynamic into the telling of the tale, right down to the new Newfoundland puppy who has overtaken their lives, even as they continue to grieve over the old dog they lost.

In good measure, it is the contrast between the quiet interpersonal interactions and the increasingly unsettling facts of the case that creates the tension that keeps the reader turning the pages. Added into the mix is a parallel plotline on each side of the mystery: the discovery of a unknown adoption that raises questions about family ties. As always with Cochrane’s books, the complexity of human nature is the key. Human nature can be pretty dark, and so can a cozy mystery.