This time out, veteran Freemantle (Bomb Grade, 1997, etc.) gives us more than just a classy thriller. It’s also a biting study of the paranoia inherent in all bureaucracies. True enough, he does take a painfully long time—80 pages or so—in getting started. Once the stage has been set, though, the rewards pile up: a quickened narrative pace, vivid characterizations, and a romance fresher than most thrillers usually deliver. Claudine Carter (French mother, English father) is a profiler. Well, not just any profiler, she’s Britain’s best, posted to The Hague to be part of Europol. It’s a pivotal moment in that infant organization’s history. Struggling to become the European Union’s FBI, it’s in desperate need of a score in order to be taken seriously—and at exactly the right time, a big case looms. Dismembered bodies are being discovered in major cities across 15 nations, and it’s clear that this grisliness is meant to convey some kind of awful message. How to interpret it? And is it the work of a serial killer—or a clutch of them? For Europol, the opportunity is obvious, but Claudine, the lynchpin of the ad hoc team assigned to the case, is surrounded by dedicated careerists. Which is to say, by accomplished back-stabbers, skilled manipulators, and all manner of bureaucratic rabbits. A problem-solver like Claudine, selfless and honest, threatens and terrifies them: they’d rather fail than see her succeed. But Claudine finds people to help her—and a man to love—in unexpected places. And from within herself, for the sake of the greater good, she summons up the will and the wiles to deal with her enemies, ploy for ploy. Sharply observed and, except for the molasses-like start, deftly told. Hard-shelled but soft at the core, Claudine makes things all the better.
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-18654-1
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1998
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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