A thrilling religious murder mystery that affirms conservative LDS values.
Chamberlin (The Valkyries Book 1: Choosers of the Slain, 2014, etc.) departs from her usual historical fiction to offer a twin tale of murder and the Mormon faith set at a Utah ski resort.
Helen Snow comes from a conservative family deeply involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Helen is visiting with her bishop to discuss her taking over the role of Relief Society president for her parish when she receives a phone call from her niece, Brittany. Brittany, who is like a daughter to Helen, has stumbled upon a grisly corpse, the wealthy, handsome bachelor David Jaramillo, while cleaning a condo in Park City, Utah. Helen rushes to Brittany’s aid and finds the police already cleaning up the scene. But while the authorities are ready to report the incident as an accidental death, Helen, and only Helen, notices something suspicious. She proceeds to explore a knot of relationships; Jaramillo, whose family owns the ski resort where the murder occurred, lies at the center. Helen ably navigates the convoluted plot threads, some of which stretch believability; the most intriguing is Helen’s tenuous relationship with her faith. While her sister, Brittany’s mother, is a paragon of religious devotion, Helen harbors certain doubts. These arose from the church’s callous response to Helen’s daughter Wizzy, who died young due to complications from Down syndrome. Wizzy serves as Helen’s moral and crime-solving compass. She hears her deceased daughter humming certain songs at crucial moments throughout the book. While this device is tryingly sentimental at times, it’s ultimately heartwarming and leads Helen to a satisfying affirmation of faith and self.
A thrilling religious murder mystery that affirms conservative LDS values.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-942756-70-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Penmore Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.
Notch another corpse for Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree (Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, 2019, etc.).
After slowly working its way out of the red, Jake’s sweet shop is now one of the linchpins of the revitalized business district of Eastport, Maine. But she and her partner, Ellie White, are less than thrilled when Henry Hadlyme, star of the food tourism show Eat This! offers to include The Chocolate Moose on his podcast Eating on the Edge! which highlights off-the-beaten-track purveyors of New England fare. Hadlyme seems a little slimy to Jake and Ellie, and his interest in their treats seems less than sincere. But when he calls Jake “missy,” that’s it; the two chocolateers boot him out of their shop. He comes back with a vengeance—or at least, his corpse does. It turns up in the basement of the Moose with a stuffed parrot pinned to its shoulder and a cutlass jabbed through its chest in a gruesome nod to the ongoing Eastport Pirate Festival. Jake would love to present police chief Bob Arnold with a convenient alternative to charging her with Hadlyme’s murder. And there’s no dearth of suspects: A surreptitious trip to the Eat This! production trailer lets Jake know that pretty much everyone involved with the show hated Hadlyme. But finding out exactly who croaked the curmudgeon—and offering the chief some proof—proves to be a challenge to Jake’s and Ellie’s ingenuity, health, and welfare.
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1134-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An expert juggling act that ends with not one but two intercut trials. More, please.
His Clifton Chronicles (This Was a Man, 2017, etc.) complete, the indefatigable Archer launches a new series that follows a well-born police officer from his first assignment to (spoiler alert) his appointment as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police some volumes down the road.
William Warwick may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he’s done everything he can to declare his independence from his father, Sir Julian Warwick QC. When William, fresh out of King’s College with a degree in art history, announces his intention to enroll in Hendon Police College, his father realizes that he’ll have to count on William’s older sister, Grace, to carry on the family’s tradition in Her Majesty’s courts. Instead, guileless William patrols the streets of Lambeth until a chance remark lands him on DCI Bruce Lamont’s Art and Antiques unit under the watchful eye of Cmdr. Jack Hawksby. No fewer than four cases await his attention: the forger who signs first editions with the names of their famous authors; a series of even more accomplished forgeries of old masters paintings; a well-organized series of thefts of artworks by a gang whose leader prefers selling them back to the companies who’ve insured them and often don’t even report the thefts to the police; and a mysterious series of purchases of century-old silver by one Kevin Carter. His investigations take William across the path, and then into the bed, of Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the Fitzmolean gallery, still reeling seven years after a priceless Rembrandt was stolen from its collection, most likely by landowner and self-styled farmer Miles Faulkner. As if to prevent William from getting even a moment’s sleep in between rounds of detection and decorous coupling, Beth unwillingly drags William into a fifth case, a 2-year-old murder whose verdict she has every reason to doubt. One of these cases will bring William up against Grace, whose withering cross-examination of him on the witness stand is a special highlight.
An expert juggling act that ends with not one but two intercut trials. More, please.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-20076-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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