Despite its pyrotechnic setting, Bolton’s latest food cozy is a misfire.
Baker Emily Westhill (Goodbye Cruller World, 2018, etc.) whips up a deadly delight that derails her local Independence Day celebration.
Since the death of Alec, her police detective husband, Emily’s been absorbed with one goal: Making her cafe, Deputy Donut, a success. So she’s thrilled at the chance to drive her vintage Ford Fordor in the annual Fallingbrook Fabulous Fourth Festivities parade. Festival queen Taylor Wishbard, who’s considerably less thrilled at the prospect of greeting her fans in a tiny car painted to look like a police cruiser, insists on being chauffeured in her own convertible instead. All too soon, snippy Taylor gets hers. She’s skewered by a rocket hidden in a stack of donuts during the annual municipal fireworks display. The mishap throws Emily right into the path of Brent Fynee, her late husband's hunky ex-partner, who’s called in to investigate. Brent has an eye for Emily, but instead of bonding them, the grief they share has always pulled them apart. Now Brent has plenty of reasons to find his way to Emily’s door. Too bad she’s out chasing Taylor’s killer. As their one-step-forward, one-step-back relationship competes for oxygen with the murder mystery, no one’s the winner.
Despite its pyrotechnic setting, Bolton’s latest food cozy is a misfire.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1191-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Filled with surprising twists and turns, this whodunit in a sullen town is a page-turner.
A young woman’s body is found smoldering in the fire pits of Campbell’s Run, Pennsylvania, and small-town police chief Dove Carnahan is on the case.
O’Dell (One of Us, 2014, etc.) returns with a captivating mystery. Who hated Camio Truly enough to not only bash her head in with a blunt object, but also ditch her body in a fiery grave? As Dove investigates, she’s assisted by Nolan, a gruff detective with the State Criminal Investigations Division and her sometime lover. Practically nobody lives in Campbell’s Run anymore, not since a sinkhole (which had been lurking underground after a mine fire) opened, sucking most of the town into its depths. Since then, Campbell’s Run has declined, as people with the means moved away to nearby Buchanan, so whoever dumped Camio’s body there must be a local. Even before Camio’s murder, the Truly family had had more than its share of troubles, including incarcerated sons and deaths by mayhem, but Dove is shocked at the apathy shown by Camio’s mother, the obese, television-addicted Shawna. Camio’s sister, Jessyca, a single mother, shows far more concern, although she makes little effort to hide her dislike of her younger, more ambitious sister. Yet under the thumb of matriarch Miranda Truly, Camio’s family clams up. Solving the case is further complicated now that Lucky Dombosky has been released from jail after serving 35 years for murdering Dove’s mother. Lucky claims Dove and her sister, Neely, framed him. Meanwhile Dove’s brother, Champ, has shown up, after his own long absence, with a precocious son in tow. O’Dell spins a fine tale, ratcheting up tension with every turn of the screw in Dove’s life and every downward spiral in the Truly family history.
Filled with surprising twists and turns, this whodunit in a sullen town is a page-turner.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5595-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Not as tightly clued as a Christie original, this initial First Edition entry still gives readers what they came for.
A curator of a collection of rare mysteries solves a puzzle of her own.
A degree in 19th-century literature doesn’t open many doors, Hayley Burke discovers, and those that do open seldom lead to treasure troves. So when her stint as assistant to the assistant curator of the Jane Austen Centre in Bath doesn’t quite cover expenses, Hayley thinks herself lucky to be offered the position of curator of The First Edition Society. Founded by the late Lady Georgiana Fowling as a repository for her vast collection of mystery novels, the society hasn’t quite decided whether it’s a library, a social club, or an educational institution. What it clearly is is Hayley's home, since the job offers both Hayley and the society’s secretary, Glynis Woolgar, apartments in Middlebank House, the spacious mansion that houses the late Lady Fowling’s collection. In an effort to expand the society’s profile, Hayley also opens Middlebank House to the weekly meetings of a local writers’ group that specializes in mystery fan fiction. But the morning after a particularly contentious session pitting writers of Agatha Christie vampire mashups against creators of Agatha Christie zombie pastiches, the corpse of Tristram Cummins is discovered in the library. Now Hayley’s job is on the line, as the tabloids move in and the board of directors suddenly finds the society’s profile a little too high. Even worse, Charles Henry Dill, Lady Fowling’s rapacious nephew, discovers that Hayley hasn’t read most of the authors featured in his aunt’s collection. Alarmed, Hayley gets down to work, and only a few novels later, Wingate (Midsummer Mayhem, 2019, etc.) shows her channeling Miss Marple accurately enough to give the police a run for their money in unmasking a killer.
Not as tightly clued as a Christie original, this initial First Edition entry still gives readers what they came for.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0410-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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