44. #PopsugarReadingChallenge: The Shortest Way to Hades

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book set in the 1980s
Book: The Shortest Way to Hades, by Sarah Caudwell

This is one of Caudwell's four comedy-mysteries narrated by Dr. Hilary Tamar,  who occasionally waxes poetic on the virtues of scholarship. As in the other books, Dr. Tamar's lawyer friends are here to help: the too-perfect Ragwort, the slightly-disreputable Cantrip, the clueless and horny Julia, and the brilliant Selena. Each book lets one of the attorneys take center stage, and this one belongs to Selena, a litigator who can talk you into or out of anything.

The plot involves an extended family tussling over a large inheritance. When one of the cousins threatens trouble if her share isn't increased, she winds up dead under circumstances that could be accident or suicide - but our heroes suspect murder. Then come a series of near-fatal accidents that appear aimed at the main heiress in the family. Selena, on a sailing trip to Greece, winds up staying with the family - only to find herself in danger. Will her silver tongue be enough to talk her way out of a confrontation with a would-be killer?  And will Dr. Tamar put the pieces together to explain it all? Of course they will, with wit and style.

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