by Victoria Tait (Author) 

WICKET OF LIES by Victoria Tait is the second in her new Cotswold Antique Mysteries, in which Dottie and Keya share dual points of view in alternating chapters.

Keya is becoming more capable in her new job of “sniffing out crime scene clues.” But don’t worry, her Waterwheel Café is still going strong.  She and Sujjin work together on the job and at home.  Dottie and Zach are close friends and partners in antiquing. He’s begun to hint that he wants more of a commitment from Dottie. There may even be a deadline, a date when their relationship needs to step up a notch, or he may leave.  WHAT??    

Anyway, the Antiques Center and the Waterwheel Cafe are sponsoring a women’s cricket team this summer, competing for the Cricket Cup against a much better team. As the story opens, Keya and her talented sister, Zivah, are doing well, but Dottie… well, she freezes when a fastball is thrown and gets hit.  She’s briefly knocked out and (gladly) steps out of the game.  A bystander is encouraged to take her place. Pip turns out to be very talented, and against all odds, the Larks win the championship!  

Who is this Pip?  Someone recognizes her, and her real identity is exposed.  What chaos! Joy and something else.

Well, this is a murder mystery, so a suspicious death occurs. Inspector Lynn, Sujjin, and Keya are the only official police force, but my goodness, there are scores of young volunteers.  They do their “spy work” as well as a bit of “cyber snooping,” and actually help quite a bit. Good thing, because there is no shortage of suspects who might have wanted the victim dead.

Questions are asked, and answers (true and false) are given. People are checked off, then put back on the list. All the while, the men’s finals cricket game takes place… a deadly game, as it turns out, as a wild cricket ball goes flying.

They say the heroine always gets her “man”.  And she does. Get the killer, that is.  Dotty, the non-police mystery sleuth, shines while the professionals stand around and watch. Nice.

Dottie also gets her man in another way. She yields to Zach’s deadline and – with some strawberry shortcake and tea – agrees to move in with him.

…

PERSONAL NOTE:  I didn’t like the pressure Zack put on Dottie. (Move in with me or I’m outta here.)  There were also some scenes when another woman “hit” on him.  Dottie saw them and possibly misinterpreted.  A relationship based on “get him, before SHE gets him” won’t last, IMO.  (Jealousy and fear are NEVER good reasons to begin an intimacy.)  Why couldn’t Zach have simply asked her to marry him?  That way, they are both committed.

…

I really enjoy Tait’s mysteries.  They are clean, well-written, and entertaining. I’ve learned tons about the antiquing world from them. 

But, not being British, I don’t know how the game of cricket works, and there was a lot of cricket in this book. The game is confusing to me. I don’t see how a team gets a score or how the players move around.  Tait does a bang-up job of giving “in-the-know” readers a play-by-play description, but I just couldn’t picture it in my mind.  It seems a bit like the American baseball game combined with a game of croquet on steroids? Well, maybe not.

I looked up the word “wicket” so I could understand the title, and discovered it has THREE MEANINGS!  A wicket can refer to the three wooden stumps (?) with the two bails (?) on top that form the target for the bowler (Is bowling in this game too?)  It can also be the dismissal of a batsman. AND, it can even refer to the area of the pitch between the wickets (more than one??).  I give up.  

All I know is, there were a bunch of lies in one of them… and Victoria Tait keeps us guessing which one.