Pirie’s third Doyle homage (The Night Calls, 2003, etc.) again boasts deft period yarn-spinning and terrific writing.
The creator of Sherlock Holmes does battle with his own Moriarty and unravels an eerie village legend.
Neophyte physician Arthur Conan Doyle awakens to find himself trapped in a dark room, with no memory of recent events and no means of escape. At length, he learns that his captor is Thomas Neill Cream, a dashing real-life figure of unmitigated evil. To facilitate his plot, Cream has insinuated himself into the lives of Doyle’s friends, the Morland family. Daring and painful physical effort gain Doyle his freedom. Half-dead, he treks the countryside until he’s eventually reunited with his mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell of Edinburgh University. After initially questioning the frenzied Doyle’s sanity, Bell nurses his old student back to health. The duo tracks Cream to the remote town of Dunwich and the eerie legend of its heath, haunted by a centuries-old witch. In the late-17th century, Dunwich outsider Mary Goddard was visited by angry neighbors who accused her of witchcraft. She escaped into the dense woodland of the heath, repeatedly eluding her would-be executioners. A catalogue of local atrocities followed, all attributed to her. Recently, wealthy eccentric Oliver Jefford, a newcomer to Dunwich Heath, has disappeared. Doyle and Bell hope and fear that tracking this mystery will lead them to the villainous Cream.
Pirie’s third Doyle homage (The Night Calls, 2003, etc.) again boasts deft period yarn-spinning and terrific writing.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-933648-11-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
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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