An engrossing comic murder mystery set in a California spa town.
A New Ager must solve the death of his flawed guru in Heath’s latest murder mystery, the second in a series.
Alan Wright runs a spiritual center in the California mountain town of Eden Ridge. The House of the Universal Message is the culmination of three decades of Alan’s study of the teachings of the charismatic British guru Branden Frank, who has accepted Alan’s invitation to visit the center. At first, it seems a dream come true—even if Frank turns out to be a bit more of a womanizer and child support–dodger than Alan had anticipated. After all, as Frank himself says, “If we think of someone else as the Buddha, as a saint, we are deluded.” The dream quickly devolves into nightmare when Frank is found dead on the side of the road beneath the House. Police suspect foul play, but who could be responsible? The grandfather of one of the children Frank refuses to acknowledge or the man who offers a noncredible confession to the murder? Alan, who has solved a murder in the past, takes up the mystery with the help of The Little Red Hens, a five-woman fledgling detective agency that meets at the House. But not only is the local police chief out to get him and close the center, Alan must also tangle with an online conspiracy group called NotAGod that claims he’s a Satanist who abuses children. Heath’s polyphonic prose captures the many comic misunderstandings between the New Agers and reactionary squares who populate Eden Ridge. “For almost two hundred years, Eden Ridge has been a decent place to live,” the chief rails against Alan and his friend, spa owner Hank Tate. “Hard-working, God-fearing, tax-paying people live here. Then that goddamn crazy nudist, Tate, turned the hotel and springs into a refuge for drug-addled sex freaks.” It’s clear that Heath loves Eden Ridge, and the care with which he builds out the citizens and their intersecting arcs adds depth to this mystery.
An engrossing comic murder mystery set in a California spa town.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2024
ISBN: 9798986620466
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Nine Pines Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.
An aspiring mystery writer sets out to solve her great-aunt’s murder and inherit an estate.
Twenty-five-year-old Annie Adams has never met her great-aunt Frances, who prefers her small village to busy London. But when a mysterious letter arrives instructing Annie to come to Castle Knoll in Dorset to meet Frances and discuss her role as sole beneficiary of her great-aunt’s estate, Annie can’t resist. Unfortunately, she arrives to find Frances’ worst fears have come true: The elderly woman—who’s been haunted for decades by a fortuneteller’s prediction that this will happen—has been murdered, and her will dictates that she will leave her entire estate to Annie, but only if Annie solves her killing. It’s a cheeky if not exactly believable premise, especially since the local police don’t seem terribly opposed to it. Annie herself is an engaging presence, if a little too blind to the fact that she could be on the killer’s to-do list. Her roll call of suspects is pleasingly long, including but not limited to the local vicar, a one-time paramour of her great-aunt’s; a gardener who grows a lot more than flowers; shady developers and suspicious friends from Frances’ past; and Saxon, Annie’s crafty rival, who inherits the estate himself if he manages to solve the case first. Annie pieces together clues through readings of Frances’ journal, but the story eventually runs aground on the twin rocks of too much explanation and a flimsy climax. Cute dialogue gives way to lengthy exposition, and by the time Frances’ killer is revealed you may well be ready to leave Annie, Dorset, and Castle Knoll behind for the firmer ground of reality. Fans of cozy mysteries are likely to be more forgiving, but if you cast a skeptical eye toward amateur sleuths, this novel won’t change your mind about them.
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593474013
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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