Readers looking for a thoughtful mystery won’t want this one to get away.
A runaway wife angles for a new life but finds a body in a lake in this historical mystery.
In Hirko’s novel set in the 1940s, Hope Merriweather—a fan of flannel shirts and fishing—and her husband, Cy, a surgeon who fancies formal parties and tennis, “don’t know how to talk to each other.” After eight years of marriage, Hope leaves Cy and their home in Olympia, Washington, for the Lake Crescent cabin her father built two decades before, when she was 12 years old. Taking out the rowboat one morning to fish for silver trout, she finds the floating, blanket-wrapped body of a redheaded woman with showy clothes, ravaged toes, and no face. News of the corpse spreads fast. Sheriff Henry Taft, who retrieves the body, treats Hope suspiciously. The local shopkeeper pummels her with questions. Round-eyed Hoot Monahan, who lives in a shack near the water’s edge, is also overly curious. Had blueberry-eyed Spence Root, who has “more vices than a wood shop,” once romanced the redhead? Could the deceased be a barmaid who disappeared a while back? She had “sassy hips and naughty eyes.” Hope mourns the loss of the woman no one else seems to miss, feels compelled to learn her identity, and obsesses about possible reasons for her murder. Hirko deftly captures the tone of the ’40s, including a less-than-optimal attitude toward women. When it’s suggested the dead woman could have been a visiting botanist, a local says: “Beautiful women don’t study science. They study men. There’s more money in it.” Historical references are skillfully woven throughout—for example, Hope is involved in the Federal Writers’ Project, and there are many mentions of the region’s Native Americans. But also supplied is a long historical passage about baseball and World War II events that’s not organic to the tale. While strong descriptions and sharp dialogue fill these pages, distilling the storyline to make it more focused would have improved the book.
Readers looking for a thoughtful mystery won’t want this one to get away.Pub Date: April 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5203-5631-0
Page Count: 391
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A compelling take on the classic whodunit.
The shocking murder of a public figure at a high-end hotel has everyone guessing who the culprit might be.
Twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray, an eccentric young woman who's obsessed with cleaning but doesn't quite have the same ability to navigate social cues as those around her, loves working as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. Raised by her old-fashioned grandmother, who loved nothing more than cleaning and watching Columbo reruns, Molly has an overly polite and straightforward manner that can make her seem odd and off-putting to her colleagues despite her being the hardest worker at the hotel. After her grandmother's death, Molly's rigid life begins to lose some of its long-held balance, and when the infamous Mr. Charles Black, a rich and powerful businessman suspected of various criminal enterprises, is found murdered in one of the rooms she cleans, her whole world gets turned upside down. Before Molly knows what's happening, her odd demeanor has the police convinced she's guilty of the crime, and certain people at the hotel are a little too pleased about it. With the help of a few new friends (and while fending off new foes), she must begin to untangle the mystery of who really killed Mr. Black to get herself off the hook once and for all. Though the unusual ending might frustrate some readers, this unique debut will keep them reading.
A compelling take on the classic whodunit.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35615-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Whimsy meets woodsy.
A mystery writer finds solace and murder in rural Oregon.
Mystery writer Tess Harrow is worried about her daughter, Gertrude. The usually resilient 14-year-old is stung by her father’s utter silence since his divorce from Tess. Fortunately, Tess has just the answer: She’ll take the feisty teen to an isolated cabin in the woods, far from Seattle coffee shops, the internet, or running water. Gertie’s reaction is predictable, but nothing else is. Shortly after their arrival, they hear a sudden boom, and water, fish, and body parts rain down from the sky. When he finally answers their distress call, Sheriff Victor Boyd tells them it’s probably “the Peabody boys.” Sure enough, Adam and Zach have been blast fishing with dynamite again, only this time, somebody stashed a corpse in the lake before their first kaboom. Boyd’s deputy Carl, who’s detailed to keep watch on Tess’ cabin, disappears, but Ivy, his female counterpart, is unfazed. What she wants most of all is for Tess to read the 1,000-page science-fiction adventure she’s written and shop it to her agent. In the meantime, Tess is fascinated with Boyd, a dead ringer for her own franchise hero, Detective Gonzales. If she can only tag along after Boyd while he’s trying to crack the case, she figures that her next novel, Fury in the Forest, will practically write itself. Boyd wants Tess dogging him about as much as he wants eczema, but eventually the two make their peace with the help of hipster librarian Nicki Nickerson, the third Peabody triplet, a man in a Bigfoot costume, and a roving flock of toucans.
Whimsy meets woodsy.Pub Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72824-860-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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