A goofy supernatural whodunit.
How do you solve a murder when you don’t know who the victim is?
Claire Hendricks has a leg up on your run-of-the-mill sleuth: Her BFF Sophie is a sassy teenage ghost who helps Claire communicate with the dead. The live woman and the ghost—who died in the 1990s under mysterious circumstances—travel around England performing séances, and now they're heading to Wilbourne Major, where they've been hired by Figgy Wellington-Forge to entertain at her grandmother's birthday party. Three generations of Wellington-Forges gather at the family estate, where, unfortunately, Nana dies the night before her party. This simultaneously casts a pall over the festivities and leads Claire on a quest: Nana, in her first moments on the other side, sees a sad-looking ghost wandering through the library and begs Claire to figure out who it is and how they died. With the help of Figgy's brother Basher and nonbinary nibling, Alex, Claire is able to pin down Nana's birthday party the year before as the site of the murder and one of the guests as the victim. Claire, who usually has little company other than Sophie and the rest of the dead, revels in her newfound friendships with Basher and Alex even as she turns a skeptical eye to the rest of their family. The next few days see Claire following a series of clues (with help from local ghosts) to try to figure out if a Wellington-Forge is in fact a murderer and which unlucky party guest died. But Claire has a secret in her past, and her excitement is clouded by anxiety: Will she be abandoned when the truth is revealed? There are certainly a few missteps in this mystery. The sprawling family, for example, could have stood to be a little less sprawling (maybe Bell could have cut out a generation?) as the many posh-named characters are hard to keep track of. And while Bell occasionally mistakes cheap one-liners for wit, there is just enough humor and heart to keep readers amused.
A goofy supernatural whodunit.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593470633
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 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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