Though much of this mystery is focused on relationships, there’s plenty of action to move the story forward.
Ursula Standard, who’s undertaken many dangerous missions as a spy for Queen Elizabeth I, her half sister, never imagined that her past could put her friends and relatives in danger.
Thrice-married Ursula, her son, Harry, and her faithful servants, Dale and Roger Brockley, arrive at Faldene House, her childhood home, for her uncle’s funeral in 1590. Her relationship with her aunt and uncle may have been uneasy, but when Aunt Tabitha dies a painful death from poison during Ursula's stay, Ursula is certain she didn't commit suicide. When her cousin Francis insists she stay for the reading of the wills, she learns, much to her surprise, that she’s been left Faldene House. Harry hastens home to his betrothed, Eleanor, but he can’t prevent her from being killed in a riding accident he doesn’t think was an accident. The two suspicious deaths make no sense until Harry’s half brother on his father's side, Capt. Julien de la Roche, arrives with a chilling tale. Matthew de la Roche was Ursula’s second husband, but his identity as a French Catholic and an enemy of Queen Elizabeth doomed their marriage to brevity. Julien has been involved with the piratical Mercer brothers, whom Ursula knew during her marriage to Matthew. They wrongly blame Ursula for their mother’s death, and they plan to take revenge by attacking Ursula's family and eventually killing her. Now that Ursula and her devoted friends know why Tabitha and Eleanor died, they can take on the daunting task of protecting themselves and each other. They do their utmost to protect Ursula’s property even as the merciless Mercers manage to do more damage.
Though much of this mystery is focused on relationships, there’s plenty of action to move the story forward.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781448310593
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Despite the title, the by-the-numbers dishing and scheming are anything but colorful.
The wedding of a couple of people who know each other very well indeed forms the backdrop to Davis’ fourth Pen and Ink mystery.
All the 500 guests gathered for the Georgetown nuptials wish the best for the happy couple even though romance novelist Jacqueline Liebhaber has already been married twice, professor John Maxwell three times, and each of them once to the other, in a marriage that was shattered years ago by the kidnapping of their young daughter, Caroline, who was never found. Now that they’re getting back together, book reviewer Margarite Herbert-Grant joins a crowd of authors who know her rapier tongue all too well—debut government-intrigue storyteller Buzz Powers; literary novelist Arthur Bedlingham; his assistant, unpublished novelist Evan McDowell; and romance novelist Gabriella Archambeau (though not her husband; reclusive bestselling thriller writer Griffin Corbyn’s sent his excuses)—to celebrate, and waitress and aspiring reporter Cara Melton, who’s somehow crashed the party, demands to know just how John and Jacquie feel about Caroline’s loss. Florrie Fox, the adult-coloring-book creator who manages Color Me Read, the bookstore John owns, does her best to protect the couple from Cara’s intrusive questions. Despite her earlier brushes with homicide, Florrie can’t stop one of the wedding guests from feeding Evan enough THC–laced brownies to make him a perfect candidate for drowning in John’s swimming pool. But every cloud has a silver lining, and the horrid Cara’s stabbed to death as well. The mystery is perfunctory, the assembled authors drawn with a cartoonist’s brush, and the killer forgettable, but veteran Davis keeps a particularly deft surprise, along with half a dozen recipes, in reserve.
Despite the title, the by-the-numbers dishing and scheming are anything but colorful.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2465-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A series debut that retains many of the conventions of a village cozy, just more broadly drawn, like a greeting card.
Under the fig-leaf Black pseudonym, newcomers Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel introduce an animals-only village in which members of many species coexist, except when they’re killing each other.
Nobody much liked Otto Sumpf, but nobody can imagine who disliked the toad enough to stab him in the back and dump him into a pond. The mystery deepens when Solomon Broadhead, the adder who serves as Shady Hollow’s medical examiner, announces that Otto has been poisoned as well, presumably by something introduced into the bottle of plum wine foxy reporter Vera Vixen found near his body. Tracing the bottle to its likely source, the Bamboo Patch vegetarian restaurant, she learns from owner Sun Li, a giant panda with a medical background, that the likely agent was heartstill, a little of which goes a long way. Of the two bears in the local police, Chief Theodore Meade is as usual out past his depth, and the paw prints at the crime scene have led Deputy Orville Braun to arrest crooked raccoon Lefty, who’s obviously innocent of this particular crime. The killer meanwhile moves on to bigger game, wealthy sawmill owner Reginald von Beaverpelt, who survives one murder attempt thanks to Sun Li but not a second, leaving Shady Hollow on shaky financial ground. Although it’s clear that Reginald has been carrying on with rest-home aide Ruby Ewing, the authors mercifully avoid any lurid details of beaver-sheep sex. Instead, intrepid Vera, the most charming figure here, dutifully checks alibis and interviews suspects who draw more clearly on human than animal stereotypes.
A series debut that retains many of the conventions of a village cozy, just more broadly drawn, like a greeting card.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-31571-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
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