A few years ago, I read Jill Paton Walsh's last Imogen Quy mystery, The Bad Quatro. I enjoyed it, but Walsh's books appear to be out of print so it took a while to get to her first. The Wyndham Case has a double meaning, both the mystery to be solved and a literal case of 17th and 18th Century books which St. Agatha's college must guard in exchange for a fairly generous stipend. Once a century, a Wyndham representative makes a surprise inspection - if anything is missing, the college loses the money and Imogen's friend Roger, the librarian in charge of the Case, loses his job.
Needless to say, finding a dead body in front of the open case would violate the Wyndham will. The body had been Philip Skellow, a scholarship student who had problems with his upper-crust roommate and a mysterious influx of funds. It looks like someone surprised him while he was stealing from the Wyndham Case, but that doesn't feel right to police officer Mike Parsons. He asks Imogen for some low-key help and she obliges, uncovering bullying, corruption, romance with a townie, and a calendar problem. Walsh sets a brisk pace through the 223 pages she allots to her case, and produces a well crafted mystery that can be read in one sitting.
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