Fans of historical fiction will admire the setting, but the plot and resounding characters will leave mystery fans aglow.
Dougherty and McBrien are back in Mulligan’s latest historical thriller (The Haystack, 2012, etc.); the doctor and the pharmacist investigate a murder and unravel what may be the work of a serial killer.
In mid-19-century Pennsylvania, town physician Maj. James Dougherty is called when miners are injured in a cave-in. Dougherty finds a man, Brogan, buried in the rubble, but a bullet hole in the body suggests foul play. The doctor; his friend and pharmacist, Sean McBrien; and Dougherty’s wife, Jen, peruse letters and newspaper clippings that Brogan left behind and realize that the dead man may have been on the trail of a murderer. The novel is an incisive murder mystery that takes advantage of its historical backdrop—it’s set months after the Civil War, in which both Dougherty and McBrien fought. Obstacles for the heroes (the local director of the mining company tries to steer the investigation in another direction involving a secret society) and short passages featuring the killer generate suspense. The mystery is predominant in the book, but Mulligan does inject finer character traits that enhance the story, like Jen’s envy of a widow’s two boys—the young wife recently lost her child at birth. Brogan’s documents, consisting mostly of witness testimonies and newspaper articles, dominate too much of the story. They do establish the killer’s pattern but some might have been summarized in lieu of being presented verbatim. The newspaper stories brim with assurances that the murderer has been caught or killed (when readers know he’s alive and well) and, as the investigation eventually proves, quite a bit of misinformation—the narrative ultimately concedes the power of “black ink upon white paper.” The leads are strong, but they’re eclipsed by an unnerving psychopathic killer (he calls himself the Diarist; others are more direct, preferring the Butcher); and amateur sleuth Jen, who kisses her husband goodbye only after ordering him “to bring back a full report.”
Fans of historical fiction will admire the setting, but the plot and resounding characters will leave mystery fans aglow.Pub Date: July 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491094723
Page Count: 346
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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