Duncan’s heroines dabble in lattes and macchiatos, but her adult debut is a cup of plain old Joe.
A budding Oregon entrepreneur gets caught up in murder.
Even though almost no one seems to have a last name at the Rail Yard, a trendy Portland venue for food carts, they’re an eclectic but convivial bunch. Emma, of PDX JoJos, fries chicken and potatoes, Macie bakes pies at blackbird-decorated 4 and 20, Adam and Carolyn make sandwiches at the Hangry Hippo, Angela and Diego offer treats from around the world at Cartography, and Zarek’s food at Fala-Awesome is strictly vegan. Harley and Sage get a warm welcome when they open their coffee cart, Ground Rules, even though they snag their coveted space only after several other carts have been closed down by developer David Stevens, who’s putting a block of luxury apartments across from the Yard. But when Stevens’ body turns up at the doorstep of Ground Rules, Detective Will of the Portland police is all over Sage, whose last name turns out to be Caplin—especially after he learns that he and Sage’s estranged mother were once an item. In a funk, Sage repairs to the Tav (even Portland bars lack last names, the “ern” having fallen off its sign years ago) to confer with her attorney brother, Jackson, and reluctantly accept his legal advice. She comes away convinced that she’ll never be in the clear until she finds out who did Stevens.
Duncan’s heroines dabble in lattes and macchiatos, but her adult debut is a cup of plain old Joe.Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3339-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Focus on people and places; leave the red herrings to someone else.
Perrin’s third Castle Knoll mystery moves to London, where Annie Adams investigates the murder of her mother’s protégé.
Acclaimed painter Laura Adams is known for her solitary ways. So Annie is perplexed, and a little piqued, to learn that her mother has taken art student Felicity Rowe under her wing, even allowing Fliss to share her Chelsea town house. Annie isn’t hard up for lodgings, since she inherited a fortune from her great-aunt Frances, but her concern over her mother’s new living arrangements brings her down from rural Dorset to assess the situation in person. That concern rises to the level of panic when Felicity turns up dead in a dumpster behind the house. Laura’s clearly hiding something, and to unravel the complex puzzle, Annie needs the help of her old friend, police Detective Rowan Crane. Felicity’s murder turns out to have roots in the decades-old death of socialite Vera Huntington, who partied with Frances in London’s jazz clubs back in the 1960s. Perrin handles the twin narratives deftly, giving careful attention to each and permitting their connection to develop richly. She allows the love interest in each story to follow their own peculiar trajectory. And she draws a vivid picture of London, both past and present. The solution to the puzzle, on the other hand, is easily foreseen and too long in coming. Perrin is at her considerable best when she concentrates on drawing sympathetic, believable characters facing tough emotional issues.
Focus on people and places; leave the red herrings to someone else.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798217047505
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
All these problems are handsomely solved at the unsurprising cost of making the human characters less interesting than the...
Just when you thought you’d seen a detective in every guise imaginable, here comes one in sheep’s clothing.
For years, George Glenn hasn’t been close to anyone but his sheep. Everyday he lets them out, pastures them, reads to them and brings them safely back home to his barn in the guilelessly named Irish village of Glennkill. Now George lies dead, pinned to the ground by a spade. Although his flock haven’t had much experience with this sort of thing, they’re determined to bring his killer to justice. There are of course several obstacles, and debut novelist Swann deals with them in appealingly matter-of-fact terms. Sheep can’t talk to people; they can only listen in on conversations between George’s widow Kate and Bible-basher Beth Jameson. Not even the smartest of them, Othello, Miss Maple (!) and Mopple the Whale, can understand much of what the neighborhood priest is talking about, except that his name is evidently God. They’re afraid to confront suspects like butcher Abraham Rackham and Gabriel O’Rourke, the Gaelic-speaking charmer who’s raising a flock for slaughter. And even after a series of providential discoveries and brainwaves reveals the answer to the riddle, they don’t know how to tell the Glennkill citizenry.
All these problems are handsomely solved at the unsurprising cost of making the human characters less interesting than the sheep. But the sustained tone of straight-faced wonderment is magical.Pub Date: June 5, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-385-52111-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Flying Dolphin/Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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