Though the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency increasingly feels more like a therapy group than a commercial enterprise, there’s...
A deceptively slow opening movement ushers in one of the most complicated dockets ever for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.
“Life,” thinks Mma Precious Ramotswe, is “more or less perfect.” But only a few hours after this contented reflection, Mr. Polopetsi, the part-time chemistry teacher who volunteers his services at the agency, presents her with an unexpectedly vexing problem. Charity Mompoloki, the sister of a fellow teacher, has been fired from her job on the sales floor of The Office Place for speaking rudely to a customer—something she tearfully assures Mma Ramotswe she didn’t do, a statement Mma Grace Makutsi, the agency’s co-director and a fellow alumna of the Botswana Secretarial College, is prepared to defend to the death. If Charity wasn’t rude, then why did her boss, Mr. Gopolang, show her the door? Looking for answers, Mma Ramotswe (Precious and Grace, 2016, etc.) visits Charity’s mother, Mma Lentswe, in Mochudi, her own hometown, and inadvertently makes a discovery that seriously threatens to derail her from the increasingly puzzling case she’s agreed to investigate, a discovery that will lead to still further developments, some of them wonderful, some shattering. Meanwhile, word comes that Note Mokoti, Mma Ramotswe’s abusive first husband, has been spotted at the local branch of the Standard Bank. The traditionally built detective, normally a rock of strength and sanity, might well be overwhelmed by all this intrigue if her creator didn’t trot out perennial bad girl Violet Sephotho for one more round of villainy, provoking Mma Ramotswe’s unsurprising reaction: “Well, she does get around, doesn’t she?”
Though the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency increasingly feels more like a therapy group than a commercial enterprise, there’s no denying the slow-burning power of its revelations in this 18th installment.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-87137-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.
Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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