Out of jurisdiction, but in his element, Madoc investigates a Welsh murder

For mounted policeman Madoc Rhys and his wife, Janet, the pains of traveling with an infant are worth taking young Dorothy to Wales for Great-Uncle Sir Caradoc’s ninetieth birthday. Along with every other member of the Rhys clan, they make the pilgrimage to the ancestral pile, to enjoy a few days of drinks, dinner, and—as it turns out—demonic sacrifices.

On their first morning at the family manor, Madoc stumbles upon a concussed shepherd and a dismembered ram. It appears to be a botched attempt at an ancient rite, executed by one of those Welshmen who still carry a torch for the religion of the druids. For a spot of fun, the Rhys family decides to stage its own ritual—recreating the fertility ceremony of the Beltane bonfires. But when the flames turn a member of his family into a fireball, Madoc springs to action. Even five thousand miles from Canada, a Mountie always gets his man.

From Publishers Weekly

The fifth Jenny and Madoc Rhys mystery offers engaging characters but a predictable ending when great-uncle Sir Cardoc Rhys's 90th-birthday festivities in Wales are terminated by a sudden death.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Detective Inspector Madoc Rhys of the Canadian Mounties (A Pint of Murder, 1980, etc.), wife Janet, and infant daughter Dorothy are visiting Madoc's family in Wales to celebrate the 90th birthday of grandfather Sir Caradoc Rhys. A clutch of friends and relatives are in and out of the manor house, eating a succession of meals and drinking endless cups of tea. Among them is neighbor Lisa Ellis, a widow whose gem-dealer husband was murdered in Marseilles eight years before. Distant cousin Mary Rhys, a gem-cutter of unexpected affluence, and her occult-obsessed brother Bob are also guests, as is Madoc's opera-star brother Daffyd, for years in love with Lisa. It takes 150 pages of relatives, local rites, and cooing over Dorothy before Mary, long tagged the murder victim, comes to her ritualistic end. Unwinding the background to her murder, a scenario full of bizarre coincidence, is no more enthralling than what's gone before. Cloying, unconvincing, and strictly for faithful fans. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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