Red herrings abound along with plenty of tips on choosing books.
A bookstore owner is framed for murder.
Nora Pennington, who owns Miracle Books in Miracle Springs, North Carolina, has a supportive circle of friends calling themselves The Secret, Book, and Scone Society. Her relationship with Sheriff Grant McCabe provides both strength and complications when she has a run-in with Kelly Walsh, her ex-husband Lawrence’s second wife. When Nora and her friends visit a new cafe in town, they meet owners Kirk and Val Walsh, who have an odd reaction to her, perhaps because of the burn scars she got in a car accident that still haunts her. But it turns out that they recognize her as Lawrence’s first wife; his current wife, Kelly, is Kirk’s sister, and they’ve come to town to help her since she’s dying of cancer. Kelly has a son, Tucker, who’s neurodivergent. When Nora discovers that Kelly was the pregnant other woman she briefly met before she left Lawrence and that Tucker is Lawrence’s son, she loses it, pushing Kelly aside just to get away. When Kelly is found dead of asphyxiation shortly afterward, Nora’s friends insist that she get a lawyer, since her relationship with the sheriff puts both of them in a tough position, and a new deputy assumes that Nora is guilty. Nora and her sleuthing friends learn that Lawrence has acquired other wives, another child, and a string of lovers while building his wealth through questionable business practices. Now he shows up in town because he wants to build a casino nearby. Kirk’s request that Nora evaluate some books that Tucker’s grandmother has left him adds still more complications when they turn out to be worth a small fortune. Through it all, Nora remains on the hook, and her continuing investigations put her in the sights of both the law and the killer.
Red herrings abound along with plenty of tips on choosing books.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781496726476
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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
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