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
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
