Allison Montclair's engaging fifth mystery, The Lady from Burma, draws her crime-solving matchmakers into a case involving a terminally ill client, her entomologist husband, and a lunacy case in the London courts. Gwen Bainbridge and Iris Sparks, proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau, are surprised to receive a visit from a happily married woman. But it turns out she's come to ensure her husband's future happiness after her death. When the client is found dead in Epping Forest just days later, Gwen and Iris smell foul play. Meanwhile, Gwen is fighting to regain her legal independence and take her seat on the board of her late husband's company. After the sneering guardian who thwarted her every move is also found dead, Gwen herself becomes a suspect, and a few odd coincidences suggest the cases are linked.
Montclair (The Unkept Woman; A Rogue's Company; The Right Sort of Man) explores her protagonists' knotty personal lives alongside the mystery plot: Iris's fear of commitment to the kindhearted gangster she's dating, and widowed Gwen's struggles with self-belief and her reluctance to date any man who's not her late husband. The cases' progression will test both their friendship and the mettle of a sharp young constable from Essex who delves into the client's death. Witty, wry banter between all Montclair's characters; insightful self-reflection from her protagonists; and details of life in London, post-World War II, round out the narrative enjoyably. Though a little thin on matchmaking, The Lady from Burma is a well-plotted entry in Montclair's entertaining series. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams