Shorn of the understated period background that frames Adams’s trademark hero, Depression-era itinerant Carl Wilcox (Lead,...
A year and a half after marrying ex-nurse Sorah, three months after leaving his body to the University of Minnesota Hospital and his fortune to Sorah, P.J. Krueger dies of an apparent heart attack. What could be more natural than the death of a 64-year-old in bed with his 24-year-old wife? Even so, P.J.’s daughter Marcia, stung less at being disinherited than at being replaced as the family’s queen bee, insists that Sorah somehow murdered the old goat. At the “memorial party” Sorah’s organized in lieu of the funeral P.J. forbade, fuming Marcia asks Kyle Champion, the former TV news reporter and anchor turned private eye who’s come at the invitation of Marcia’s brother Matt, to prove the charge. But it won’t be easy, since the party—part wake, part family reunion—is crawling with relatives and hangers-on who had their own reasons for wanting their father, father-in-law, or ex-lover dead. As if suspicion isn’t scattered generously enough, Kyle (When Rich Men Die, 1987) will also have to deal with three comely, forbidden ladies all intent on turning his head and with the ghostly apparition of a loony neighbor whose alleged death in a bus accident hasn’t stopped him from popping up, armed with a hatchet, just when things are getting friendly between Kyle and one of those ladies.
Shorn of the understated period background that frames Adams’s trademark hero, Depression-era itinerant Carl Wilcox (Lead, So I Can Follow, 1999, etc.), this decorous hothouse gossipfest lumbers as interminably as the house party from hell.Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7862-3000-2
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Five Star/Gale Cengage
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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