The Margaret Code

Journalist Hooton debuts with an affecting whodunit inspired by his relationship with his late grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s. Widowed octogenarian Margaret Winterbottom has lived peacefully in the English cul-de-sac of Garnon Crescent for 60 years. Her stable existence is upended one morning when her neighbor and best friend of several decades, Barbara Jones, is found dead on her kitchen floor. The removal of Barbara’s body sparks painful recollections for Margaret—namely of her husband’s death—but other memories, including the details of her and Barbara’s final encounter, prove more elusive. Through the fog of her failing cognition, Margaret remembers Barbara asking her to complete some sort of task, but she can’t recall what it was. Frustrated and indignant, she resolves to investigate with the help of her teenage grandson, James. Hooton fashions the pair into convincing sleuths whose capabilities never strain credulity, and he wrings plenty of emotion from Margaret’s struggles against the onset of dementia. Fans of Daniel Friedman’s Buck Schatz series will love this. (Apr.)