Third in a series from Grace (a.k.a. P.C. Doherty) set in medieval England and featuring Kathryn Swinbrooke, Canterbury's city physician (The Eye of God, 1994, etc.). Working with soldier Colum Murtagh, the King's Commissioner (Kathryn's love but not her lover), she's confronted with a series of knotty puzzles. Most urgent is the poisoning death of the King's tax collector Sir Reginald Erpingham—a greedy, blackmailing lecher found in a tavern room locked and bolted from the inside; his wineglass containing no poison; his sacks of silver holding only rocks. It soon develops that everyone at the Wicker Man tavern, including the surly proprietor and his wife, had reason to hate the victim. The plot thickens, though, when Erpingham's servile clerk Vavasour is found drowned in a frozen pond nearby, newly minted coins scattered on the floor of his tavern bedroom. Even more stressful to Kathryn is the imprisonment of dying painter Richard Blunt, an old acquaintance, after Blunt's young, flighty wife and two of her admirers are killed. Add to this the disappearance, in a raging snowstorm, of Colum's helper Henry Frenland, and Kathryn's growing fear that her brutal soldier husband, long missing, may some day reappear. Finally, the solutions are a bit overelaborate, and too many peripheral characters, mostly unmemorable, clutter the landscape. But the medieval backdrop has a lively reality, the puzzles are sporadically engaging—and this time out, Kathryn and Colum are warmer and more appealing. The best of this series so far.
Pub Date: June 16, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13124-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
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
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
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