A highly original metafictional pastiche.
The teasing title of Little’s first novel only hints at the layers of playful self-referentiality bubbling beneath its hardboiled surface.
An insurance company has hired “third-rate gumshoe” One the Gun to investigate the death of Five the No Longer Alive, who in life was Five the Dive, a man who’d wrestled the struggling seafood restaurant once owned by Eight the First Mate into profitability by redubbing it the Dive Inn, emphasizing drinks over food, and hiring hulking Four the Door as doorman. One the Gun’s had some modest success in divorces and embezzlements, but he’s never solved a murder before. And he’s laboring under an unusual handicap this time: He’s just been shot to death himself, and his afterlife has sent him spinning back over the same last day over and over again. His faithful assistant, Two the True Blue, informs him that Five died after a fatal dose of rat poison. But it’s unclear whether that dose was administered by Eight, who’s now working as a bartender for a man he deeply resents; by Six the Kicks, Five’s flirtatious widow; by Seven the Heaven, a Catholic priest whose congregants at Our Lady of Immaculate Numbers are mostly ignorant of his gambling addiction; or by any number of other suspects. Spouting a steady stream of Chandleresque similes (“that dish is as stunning as a billy club to the back of the head”), One the Gun battles to make each reiteration of the day different enough to get him closer to the truth. Readers should be warned that the denouement will make them realize that even the few verities they thought they could trust here are anything but reliable.
A highly original metafictional pastiche.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781942436676
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Forest Avenue Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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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