Fictional fluff that reminds us why Gloria Steinem was necessary.
First released in 1958, primo pulp fiction starring knockout private eye-ful Honey West. Pour a martini, light up a Lucky, relax and enjoy.
Written by the husband-and-wife team of Gloria and Forest E. Fickling, this tale introduced an eventual 11 Honey West potboilers and a follow-up TV series. Our improbable sleuth is a Jayne Mansfield with va-va-voom measurements and a snubnose .32. She’s dogging a bestial wise guy who’s reduced a man’s mug to ground chuck: Herb Nelson, smarmy icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age and a star in kids’ flicks, has been crowned with his own Oscar. It hasn’t been Howdy Doody Time for Herb for years; he’s been strung out on heroin. When more corpses pile up, Honey wrinkles her cute brow to suss it all out. Such as it is, the plot’s a corker. But the main kick is the cool-jazz kitsch: stock charmers like tough/tender cop Mark Storm, hunky novelist Rod Caine, a pimple-faced junkie dubbed Danny Marbles. Not to mention a Playboy magazine fixation on high-priced hi-fis, Venus-shaped swimming pools and tres hip home furnishings. And talk about Hefneresque—it’s amazing how often Honey “loses” her bra or “tears” her swimsuit.
Fictional fluff that reminds us why Gloria Steinem was necessary.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58567-684-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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