If you’re looking for big thrills, Bruce Beckham’s Inspector Skelgill mysteries are generally not for you. These stories take the cozy route, most of the time, and the plot of Murder In Our Midst is pretty much right out of Agatha Christie.

The school clique that centered around beautiful Daisy Mills decades ago has gathered again at a lodge in the English Lakes District, to support her after the death (by poisoning) of her third husband. For fun, they bring out a Ouija board, and the planchet spells out something about murder. The next morning, Daisy is found drowned in a pool near a waterfall.

When the police call goes out, Inspector Skelgill and DS Jones are in a boat on a nearby lake. He’s trying to teach her fly fishing. They answer the call and start interviewing witnesses. Evidence indicates murder, so it becomes a question of evaluating alibis. In some ways, we never really get out of high school; old loves and hatreds still endure…

I enjoy the Skelgill series, and the quiet nature of the stories has something to do with it. These books are almost as much about appreciation of the charms of the scenery as about murders and characters. Murder In Our Midst was not one of my favorites. It was the kind of story where you have to keep track of a lot of characters, some of whom aren’t all that memorable, along with various time lines.

But it was kind of like time with old friends, so I won’t pan the book.

I’ll say this – I hope this is a series where characters age slower than in real time. Because if DS Jones is waiting for Skelgill to make a romantic move on her, I fear she’s going to be waiting a while.