Though the impatient, tightfisted, homophobic lead detective is impossible to love, the mind-boggling plot triumphs over its...
Television writer/Christie-loving Sherlock-ian Horowitz (Magpie Murders, 2017, etc.) spins a fiendishly clever puzzle about a television writer/Christie-loving Sherlock-ian named Anthony Something who partners with a modern Sherlock Holmes to solve a baffling case.
Six hours after widowed London socialite Diana Cowper calls on mortician Robert Cornwallis to make arrangements for her own funeral, she’s suddenly in need of them after getting strangled in her home. The Met calls on murder specialist Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-DI bounced off the force for reasons he’d rather not talk about, and he calls on the narrator (“nobody ever calls me Tony”), a writer in between projects whose agent expects him to be working on The House of Silk, a Holmes-ian pastiche which Horowitz happens to have published in real life. Anthony’s agreement with Hawthorne to collaborate on a true-crime account of the case is guaranteed to blindside his agent (in a bad way) and most readers (in entrancingly good ways). Diana Cowper, it turns out, is not only the mother of movie star Damian Cowper, but someone who had her own brush with fame 10 years ago when she accidentally ran over a pair of 8-year-old twins, killing Timothy Godwin and leaving Jeremy Godwin forever brain-damaged. A text message Diana sent Damian moments before her death—“I have seen the boy who was lacerated and I’m afraid”—implicates both Jeremy, who couldn’t possibly have killed her, and the twins’ estranged parents, Alan and Judith Godwin, who certainly could have. But which of them, or which other imaginable suspect, would have sneaked a totally unpredictable surprise into her coffin and then rushed out to commit another murder?
Though the impatient, tightfisted, homophobic lead detective is impossible to love, the mind-boggling plot triumphs over its characters: Sharp-witted readers who think they’ve solved the puzzle early on can rest assured that they’ve opened only one of many dazzling Christmas packages Horowitz has left beautifully wrapped under the tree.Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267678-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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The real-life events of the War of the Currents are exciting enough without embroidery. Still, readers who care more about...
The great tech innovators of the '90s—that’s the 1890s—posture, plot, and even plan murder in this business book–turned–costume drama.
In the late 19th century, as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse began wiring America for electricity, the titans locked horns over which electrical standard would prevail—AC or DC—in a struggle that came to be known as the “War of the Currents.” Novelist (The Sherlockian, 2010) and screenwriter (The Imitation Game, 2014) Moore chops up and rearranges a decade’s worth of events, squeezes them into two years, adds a few crimes, and serves the result up in a lively if unsurprising legal thriller. He tells the story from the point of view of Paul Cravath, the young attorney charged with defending Westinghouse against a potentially devastating patent suit brought by Edison. The key to winning, Cravath decides, is to get Nikola Tesla—the mad scientist to end all mad scientists—to invent a better lightbulb. Subtle this isn’t. A devastating lab fire! An inexplicable disappearance! A beautiful diva with a mysterious past! An attempted murder! An electrocuted dog! The characters mug and posture like actors in a silent film with dramatic captions: “She turned her glare to Westinghouse. 'You’re a co-conspirator in this villainy?' " Tesla, a Serbian, talks funny: “My accent is wide. Perhaps you have been noticing.” Eventually, inspired by the innovative business practices of Westinghouse and Edison, Cravath invents the 20th-century law firm and wins the hand of the lady.
The real-life events of the War of the Currents are exciting enough without embroidery. Still, readers who care more about atmosphere than accuracy will enjoy this breezy melodrama.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-812-98890-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
As fast, feisty, and full of personality as its heroine.
A chronic meddler meddles some more in the business and personal lives of friends. No lessons are learned.
Reflecting on her life, Miss Julia Murdoch thinks the time has come for her to set her pride aside, judge less, and learn to live and let live instead of trying to tweak the world around her to become the best version of itself. But like a police officer called back to one last case, Miss Julia’s got a thing or two to do before she gives up her meddling ways—or, as she thinks of it, doing the Lord’s work in everyone’s best interest. First off is helping neighbor Mildred Allen, who has her hands full of her husband Horace’s memory problems, which are a real burden for Mildred, as she likes to remind people. Mildred’s estranged daughter, Tonya, has sent her a young girl whom Tonya apparently adopted and abandoned, a bit like a care package but more like an I-don’t-care package. Mildred generously allows the girl, whom Tonya calls Penelope, to act as a nursemaid to Horace during the times she isn't being watched by Miss Julia and Lillian, her household help. Miss Julia and Lillian are on the verge of getting Penelope to open up when she informs them that her name isn’t Penelope but Alicia. Just imagine! In addition to getting Mildred to bond with the girl, Miss Julia’s also determined to help poor Etta Mae Wiggins, the best certified nursing assistant at the Handy Home Helpers. When Etta Mae finds out that her boss, Lurline Corn, may be ready to clean house and sell the business, she’s beyond worried, but Miss Julia has a plan or five up her sleeve to make sure Etta Mae comes out on top.
As fast, feisty, and full of personality as its heroine.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-56051-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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