Fowler’s tale—humorous, engaging, at times incoherent—inundates readers with historical details, myths, subplots, and maps...
During one of the rainiest years in the City’s history, the decrepit leaders of London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit (Full Dark House, 2004) must navigate two unofficial investigations: the death of elderly Ruth Singh and the skullduggery behind a scholar’s research into London’s extensive underground river system.
Benjamin Singh wants Arthur Bryant to look into his sister’s death. He found her in the basement of her Victorian home on Balaklava Street, dressed to go out, hands folded, dead of a heart attack, with her mouth full of river water. Her house is on a street named after a Crimean War battle—as Arthur is quick to point out in one of the innumerable and fascinating digressions on the history of London that bubble up through the story like one of the forgotten subterranean rivers on which London is built. Few people know the network of old waterways as well as academic Gareth Greenwood, who’s accepted an all-cash job as a guide to a mysterious Egyptian searching for the “Five Rivers of the Underworld.” Greenwood’s wife asks Bryant’s colleague John May to investigate when Greenwood makes out his will. Meanwhile, two other residents of Balaklava Street die, and the water table is still rising.
Fowler’s tale—humorous, engaging, at times incoherent—inundates readers with historical details, myths, subplots, and maps and then tacks on a dénouement that seems to belong to a separate novel.Pub Date: July 5, 2005
ISBN: 0-553-80389-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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