Bechard (Good Neighbors, 1998, etc.) laces his frantic plot with satisfyingly obvious targets and suitably moody...
The homicide at the Elm City Motor Lodge looks straightforward enough: A prostitute’s obviously gone berserk and stabbed her client to death. But the case heats up when the pseudonymous victim, wearing only a condom, is identified as retired Bible publisher Richard Deegan, the number-two man and designated successor to James Crawford, founder and CEO of the Sons of God, the religious right’s answer to licentiousness, homosexuality, and the dark races. And it reaches the boiling point when SOG vice-president Tony Sorrentino is found murdered in identical fashion, in what looks like the final blow to New Haven detective William Shute’s theory that the prostitute (Yale drama student Midori Strumski, if only he knew) killed Deegan in self-defense. Despite the city fathers’ determined attempts to wash the Sons white as snow before they move their headquarters to a vacant, high-priced office building in the ailing city’s Ninth Square, however, Shute can’t ignore the evidence that the Sons are more sinning than sinned against. Even after he loses his badge and gun, he won’t give up, tracking down likely prostitutes over the Web and delving into Deegan’s past a little too deeply to suit a fiery angel who delivers threats to him and violence to his hot new lover Gracie O’Toole—and to anybody else who gets too close.
Bechard (Good Neighbors, 1998, etc.) laces his frantic plot with satisfyingly obvious targets and suitably moody atmospherics, even though many of the key figures in his morality play remain too shadowy to spring to very convincing life.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-765-30146-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001
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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