A well-established setting enriches this unhurried but worthwhile whodunit.
In Marriott’s mystery sequel, a retired homicide detective reluctantly investigates a murder in Greece.
Vathy, on the Greek island of Ithaca, has been Virgil Colvin’s home for two years. He left the Chicago Police Department after his wife died and has since fallen in love with Eurydice Pantakalas, to whom he’s now engaged. However, Vathy police chief Costas Pantakalas, Virgil’s friend and Eurydice’s cousin, gets married first, and the newlyweds’ honeymoon includes meeting up with Virgil and Eurydice in the Greek peninsula town of Monemvasia. They dine at a local restaurant with a large group arranged by a Greek billionaire, and the meal turns into a politically charged debate involving climate activists and a journalist. The next day, one of the dinner guests, Theodoric Künz, the chair of Byzantine history at Harvard University, is found dead, his body badly burned. Just because Virgil investigated a murder last year on Ithaca—as chronicled in the previous series entry, The School of Homer (2023)—doesn’t mean he wants anything to do with this latest one. However, Costas and Eurydice’s coaxing, and his own growing interest, causes him to look closer at the case, with the aim of unmasking a killer. Initially, Marriott’s sophomore series installment moves at a slow, deliberate pace, not unlike the quieter island life that Virgil seems to enjoy. The extended dinner scene deftly introduces characters who go on to become suspects or potential future victims, and the killer’s motive isn’t immediately clear. It’s entertaining to watch Virgil in detective mode, sleuthing with Costas, who’s technically still on his honeymoon, and Monemvasia chief inspector Spyros Liourdis. Due to the fact there’s not much evidence, aside from one key element of the crime scene, the three investigators lead a string of interrogations, and piece together, or pull apart, developing theories. Greece, meanwhile, isn’t merely a backdrop—its rich history and culture, and its memorable sites, continually fuel the narrative. The final act culminates in a satisfying revelation, followed by a delightful tease for the third installment.
A well-established setting enriches this unhurried but worthwhile whodunit.Pub Date: June 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781836710417
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
High art meets low life in a tale a lot more sympathetic to the latter.
Someone is stalking the streets of Lt. Eve Dallas’s New York, intent on bringing new life to sex workers by snuffing out their old ones.
In 2061, prostitutes are called licensed companions, and that’s Leesa Culver’s job description when she’s accosted by a plausible-looking artist who wants to hire her as a model for the night. Before the night is over, she’s been drugged, strangled, costumed, and posed as an uncanny replica of Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring. The shock of the crime is deepened by the murder the following night of licensed companion Bobby Ren, whose body is discovered at an art gallery entrance costumed and posed as Gainsborough’s Blue Boy. The killer clearly has an obsessive agenda, a rapid-fire timetable, and access to unlimited financial resources that have allowed him to commission expensive custom-made outfits for the victims. This last detail both marks his power and points to the way Dallas, her gazillionaire husband, Roarke, and her sidekick, Det. Delia Peabody, will track him down by methodically narrowing the field of consumers who’ve purchased the costly costumes. After identifying the guilty party two-thirds of the way through the story, they’ll still face an uphill battle convicting a killer with no conscience, no respect for the law, and a budget that would easily cover the means to jump bail, remove his ankle tracker, and hire a private jet to escape to a foreign land with no extradition treaty. Robb keeps it all consistently absorbing by sweating every procedural detail along with her heroine. Only Dallas’ climactic interrogation of her prisoner is a letdown, because it’s perfectly obvious how she’s going to wangle a confession out of him.
High art meets low life in a tale a lot more sympathetic to the latter.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250370822
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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