I have just finished reading this book by Veronica Stallwood, one of her mystery stories with heroine Kate Ivory and set in Oxford. Somebody recommended these to me last year and I bought the first two and was not over enamoured with them, thought the plotting was a bit wayward and the denouement far fetched, but I liked Kate as a character and decided to carry on reading them. I have not been searching them out compulsively but just picked up a few here and there and found that I have been enjoying them more and more. I have read them all wildly out of order which has made them rather interesting as I go backwards and 
forwards and meet Kate and her boyfriends and her spirited mother, at different stages of the various relationships. Keeps me on my toes.
I think Oxford Letters is one of the best yet. Kate's mother comes under the influence of a couple, Marcus and Ayesha who, under the guise of caring for her as she has not been well and looking after her, gradually insinuate themselves into her life. Kate does not trust them and as she begins to investigate their background, she starts receiving emails warning her that something bad will happen to her if she continues down this path. She ignores this threat and carries on with her investigations and gradually discovers that not only are these two con artists, but there is a possibility that they are murderers too with a trail of death following wherever they go. She can prove nothing and all that they do is within the law, but little does Kate know that somebody else is also interested in these two impostors and there is a surprising and rather shocking ending to the story.
The difference between Oxford Letters published in 2005 with Death and the Oxford Box, which is one of the earlier ones and the first of this series that I read, is quite marked and I am now going to make sure I read the rest of the Kate Ivory adventures. I am finding I am enjoying Veronica Stallwood's writing very much.
I have about another six to go so that should keep me occupied for a while, well, perhaps a week or two anyway.
