An intriguing and engaging crime tale with some levity to lighten the pandemic element.
In this eighth installment of a mystery series, the Chautauqua Institution confronts its first Covid-19 death—or was it murder?
Another summer season brings another mysterious death to the Institution, an educational, artistic, and spiritual retreat in Western New York state. On a bench in Bestor Plaza, Mimi Goldman, a reporter for Chautauqua’s The Dailyand an incorrigible sleuth, and her partner in crime-solving, the spirited 95-year-old Sylvia Pritchard, are savoring an outdoor, socially distanced coffee break. Mimi, the series’ lead protagonist, tells her friend that last week’s running gag in the snarky, satirical publication Buglelists the plagues that have beset the Institution in this 2020 summer of Covid-19. And Mimi and Sylvia are among those targeted by the anonymous Bugle writer: “The plague of hail is Chautauqua’s own geezer gumshoes: Me-Me Goldman and Over-the-Hillvia Pritchard” because they “clamor like a drumbeat of hail for attention.” Mimi mentions her boss disclosed that the anonymous Buglewriter is the wealthy Albert Martin, and a surprised Sylvia responds that he is the Institution member who died of Covid-19. On Saturday, during a Zoom staff meeting, Mimi receives an email from Al’s sister, Shannon, asking for help in investigating his death. It turns out it was a telemed doctor who linked Al’s symptoms to Covid-19, and the two surviving Martin brothers had his body cremated without the benefit of an autopsy. There are plenty of suspects—especially the diverse members of the dysfunctional Martin clan—who may have wanted Al dead. But Mimi’s first task is to figure out how he died. With an enthusiastic Sylvia at the wheel (Mimi doesn’t drive), the two women head out to question the coroner. In this enjoyable novel, Pines uses tightly constructed dialogue, often tinged with light, sarcastic repartee, to establish her captivating characters. The author also presents a rich assortment of potential motives for murder, with money and revenge topping the list. There is a new, gently somber tone to this episode, reflective of the first summer of the pandemic. Concerts, lectures, and even sporting events are conducted remotely, and Pines effectively communicates the humorous, frustrating technical quirks that have become routine over the past year.
An intriguing and engaging crime tale with some levity to lighten the pandemic element.Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-52-501736-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.
A sequel to The Grey Wolf (2024) that begins with the earlier novel’s last line: “We have a problem.” And what a problem it is.
Now that Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his allies in and out of the Sûreté du Québec have saved Canada’s water supply from poisoning on a grand scale, you might think they were entitled to some rest and relaxation in Three Pines. No such luck. Don Joseph Moretti, the Sixth Family head who ordered the hit-and-run on biologist Charles Langlois that nearly killed Gamache as well, is plotting still more criminal enterprises, and Gamache can’t be sure that Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff, who’s been cozying up to Moretti in order to get the goods on him, hasn’t gone over to the dark side herself. In fact, Gamache’s uncertainty about Evelyn sets the pattern for much of what follows, for another review of one of Langlois’ notebooks reveals a plot so monstrous that it’s impossible to be sure who’s not in on it. Is it really true, as paranoid online rumors have it, that “Canada is about to attack the U.S.”? Or is it really the other way around, as the discovery of War Plan Red would have it? As the threats loom larger and larger, they raise questions as to whether the Black Wolf, the evil power behind them, is Moretti, disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Marcus Lauzon, whom Gamache has arranged to have released from prison, or someone even more highly placed. A brief introductory note dating Penny’s delivery of the uncannily prophetic manuscript to September 2024 will do little to assuage the anxieties of concerned readers.
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328175
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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