An immersive tale of murder and betrayal.
In Moore’s novel, a retired prosecutor entangled in a murder case becomes increasingly convinced the prime suspect is innocent.
Maggie Anderson retires to Utah following a long career as a prosecutor in Washington, D.C., after an innocent suspect is killed by vengeful vigilantes. However, her “old crusading spirit” is aroused when she sees injustice brewing: While vacationing in Ogden with friends, she learns that the body of local woman Audrey Stillman was found buried in her backyard—she’s been dead for four years—and everyone in town simply assumes her husband, Ben, is the culprit. They divorced after 15 years of marriage, and it is widely known the reason for their separation was Ben’s poorly concealed sexual orientation. Anxious that Ben won’t get a fair trial, Maggie finds him a defense attorney and helps out as an investigator as well. In this gripping crime drama, Maggie’s efforts only further confirm her intuition that Ben is innocent. Moreover, she is persuaded that the Stevensons, one of the county’s “founding families,” are at the very least hiding something regarding Audrey’s death, and they may be somehow responsible for it (“the reality is the DA isn’t going to take the hit by arresting anyone named Stevenson,” Maggie ruefully notes). The author paints a rich picture of small-town life in all its social incestuousness, deftly conveying the ways in which secrets prolifically beget secrets. Maggie is a captivating character—an activist at heart, she is thrice divorced, and encounters, amid the chaos of her investigation, a late-in-life promise of romance. Moore’s writing is plain and straightforward, lacking in literary style and sometimes leaning toward the earnestly banal. However, the plot is impressively intricate and unfolds in a manner brimming with suspense. This is an exceedingly intelligent murder mystery, dramatically enthralling and thoroughly entertaining.
An immersive tale of murder and betrayal.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9798822955905
Page Count: 428
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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