A compelling, action-packed thriller simmering with intrigue, suspense, and twisty mystery.
In Coburn’s mystery novel, a young woman dedicates her life to solving her mother’s murder.
In 1986, when good-natured graduating high school senior Charlotte “Charlie” Purdue comes home from school one day, her world is forever changed. First, her father, a local log cabin contractor, speeds out of town after telling his daughter that “leaving now is the only way I know to keep you safe.” Then, she discovers her mother’s murdered corpse, and things begin to spin out of control. The police of Concrete, Washington, have no leads, and when local boys find evidence that her father drowned in a local river, Charlotte accepts her fate as a grieving daughter but vows to find out what happened—despite small-town Concrete’s local gossipmongers, who’ve drawn their own conclusions. When Charlie thinks she sees her father in a low-budget movie, she immediately heads off to Hollywood to investigate. Things get murkier once she arrives and insinuates herself into the windswept desert set of a low-budget “zombie epic,” edging ever closer to finding her father while encountering a “cauldron of intrigues” blocking her path, including fake priests, seasoned actors, and a math whiz who writes in Russian Cyrillic text. The author is exacting in his depiction of Charlie, a gun-toting girl who exhibits the tenacity and diligence of a seasoned police investigator; as the story grows darker and more suspenseful, Charlie emerges as rock-solid in her determination. Gritty and immersively entertaining, Coburn’s novel draws readers into the movie-set melodrama as the book’s narrative momentum consistently picks up speed. The author has some difficulty with scene transitions, which can be jarring, but he makes up for these rocky shifts with convincing, authentic emotional nuances and dangerous situations that establish Charlie as a fierce protagonist.
A compelling, action-packed thriller simmering with intrigue, suspense, and twisty mystery.Pub Date: March 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781509253388
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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