The vast storehouse of characters and interwoven subplots will challenge readers new and old to Pandian (The Elusive Elixir,...
An alchemist is eager to answer a call for help her long-vanished mentor may have concealed within a painting even though pursuing it may force her to disclose her alchemical identity.
An admirer of professions involving skill, passion, and talent, Zoe Faust is mesmerized by a painting at the memorial exhibition of recently deceased Logan Magnus that’s remarkably lifelike in its representation. She’s convinced that this portrait of Nicolas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, must have been painted by someone who knew the couple firsthand, though they’ve been dead more than 100 years. As an alchemist who’s been alive for centuries, Zoe’s capable of believing the impossible, beginning with the life she shares with her friend and roommate Dorian Robert-Houdin, a living gargoyle. Zoe wishes she could ask Magnus how he knew Nicolas Flamel, who was her alchemical teacher and mentor years before he suddenly disappeared. Although Magnus is a literal dead end, Zoe suspects Flamel’s left a message asking for her assistance. Unable to seek help from her boyfriend, Portland police officer Max Liu, with whom she’s never shared the secret of her true self, she relies instead on the only other alchemist she knows, Tobias Freeman. Tobias is visiting after the recent death of his wife, Rosa, and Max and his colleagues believe there’s something suspicious about his presence in town. Zoe’s more focused on how Tobias can help her track Flamel, though as they come to believe that Magnus was likely murdered by someone who was asking the same question, they feel the danger to themselves. As Max asks questions that make it harder to keep her alchemy practice secret, Zoe has to decide whether now’s the time to reveal who she really is in order to rescue the man who helped her become an alchemist.
The vast storehouse of characters and interwoven subplots will challenge readers new and old to Pandian (The Elusive Elixir, 2017 etc.), who seems more intent on opening doors she’s kept carefully locked until now than on making the new developments pay off.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7387-5301-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
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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