Despite the familiar salt-and-pepper premise, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
A police detective’s widow in a Cornwall town develops an unlikely friendship as she tries to learn what happened to a young man whose plea for help she spurned.
Ally Bright has been a bit of a recluse since the death of her husband, Bill, last year. Though Bill was a well-regarded police detective in Porthpella, Ally prefers to spend her time at home in Shell House, fabricating sculptures from trash washed up by the sea, and isn’t close to her neighbors. When her daughter, Evie, tries to convince her to move to Australia, Ally—who has a hard time even leaving Shell House—is hard-pressed to answer Evie’s question about what’s left for her in the town. Jayden Weston, a newcomer to Porthpella, is wondering about his own place in the world. He’s come to the family home of his wife, Cat, so the two can raise their baby, who’s due any day now. Ally’s and Jayden’s paths cross one morning when they meet over Lewis Pascoe’s body on the seashore. Lewis is rushed to the hospital, but the police think he’s unlikely to recover from what they deem a botched suicide attempt. Ally’s left in shock. Lewis had come to her house just last night begging for help from Bill. Unprepared for his visit, Ally had turned him away. Jayden isn’t sure that what happened to Lewis was of his own doing, and he senses that Ally shares his doubts. Whether or not it's because Jayden was once a police officer, he’s determined to find the truth, and he teams up with Ally in an improbable duo whose kinship warms their investigation.
Despite the familiar salt-and-pepper premise, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.Pub Date: July 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781662505126
Page Count: 439
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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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