A New Orleans newbie finds charm and murder in the Big Easy.
Like most cozy heroines, Miracle “Ricki” Fleur de Lis James-Diaz left a good job in the big city (Los Angeles) under a cloud (her boss’s involvement in a Ponzi scheme). But unlike most of the others, she licks her wounds not in some sleepy backwater but in hustling-and-bustling New Orleans. After renting a shotgun cottage from Kitty Kat Rousseau—who despite her name is not a madam but a synchronized parade dancer—she snags a job at the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, one of the Garden District’s premier tourist attractions. Bon Vee is run by Eugenia Charbonnet Felice, last in a long line of elegant but fun-loving Charbonnets. It was Eugenia’s grandma Genevieve who turned the old plantation into a historical site. Madame Noisette, a volunteer docent at the Bon Vee who was Genevieve’s friend, regales the staff with tales of champagne-filled parties that lasted until dawn. Executive director Lyla Brandt is impressed, but director of educational programming Cookie Yanover is too busy ogling Eugenia’s nephew Theo to care. If only the Bon Vee crew paid as much attention to tour guide Franklin Finbloch, they might have caught on earlier to his pilfering of Bon Vee artifacts. When they do notice, he’s fired only to show up days later in a trunk together with a giant collection of books. Ricki is eager to keep all the folks she hopes will become her new New Orleans “family” off the list of police suspects. Her sleuthing places her in all-too-foreseeable peril.
Standard cozy fare served up Crescent City style.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-59343-761-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Wyoming winter brings maverick game warden Joe Pickett poachers, murderers, spies, and some ferocious bad weather.
Seeking a wounded elk and a marauding wolf during a brutal snowstorm, Joe is amazed to discover a human corpse sticking halfway out of a metal outbuilding on the Double Diamond ranch. While he’s conscientiously photographing the crime scene, somebody starts shooting at him. Ranch foreman Clay Hutmacher refuses to say anything about the building’s purpose until he checks with billionaire ranch owner Michael Thompson; Gov. Colter Allen abruptly orders Joe off the case; and departing Twelve Sleep County Sheriff Scott Tibbs, the boss who’d do anything to avoid having Joe make waves, reports that there’s no body at the place he described. Meanwhile, Joe’s old friend Nate Romanowski, an outlaw falconer, is approached by ex–Army Ranger Jason Demo, who’s trying to attract anti-government malcontents to join the secessionist Sovereign Nation, and Joe realizes that his predatory mother-in-law, Missy, is neglecting her fifth or sixth husband, attorney Marcus Hand, who’s dying of pancreatic cancer, to cozy up to Allen, who plans to launch his campaign for reelection at the public library headed by Joe’s wife, Marybeth. What does the death of University of Wyoming engineering professor Zhang Wei, if that’s really who the dead man was, have to do with all of this malfeasance? Like a patient spider, Box plays out plotline after plotline, balancing his sympathies adroitly between anti-establishment libertarians who’ve had enough of the coastal elites and officers sworn to serve and protect their communities, before knotting them all together with a climactic revelation that for better or worse will leave you gasping.
One of the most successful of Box’s increasingly ambitious have-it-all thrillers.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9780593331309
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Categories: SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A compelling take on the classic whodunit.
26
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The shocking murder of a public figure at a high-end hotel has everyone guessing who the culprit might be.
Twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray, an eccentric young woman who's obsessed with cleaning but doesn't quite have the same ability to navigate social cues as those around her, loves working as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. Raised by her old-fashioned grandmother, who loved nothing more than cleaning and watching Columbo reruns, Molly has an overly polite and straightforward manner that can make her seem odd and off-putting to her colleagues despite her being the hardest worker at the hotel. After her grandmother's death, Molly's rigid life begins to lose some of its long-held balance, and when the infamous Mr. Charles Black, a rich and powerful businessman suspected of various criminal enterprises, is found murdered in one of the rooms she cleans, her whole world gets turned upside down. Before Molly knows what's happening, her odd demeanor has the police convinced she's guilty of the crime, and certain people at the hotel are a little too pleased about it. With the help of a few new friends (and while fending off new foes), she must begin to untangle the mystery of who really killed Mr. Black to get herself off the hook once and for all. Though the unusual ending might frustrate some readers, this unique debut will keep them reading.
A compelling take on the classic whodunit.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35615-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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