An intriguing and cozy mystery that’s perfect for any bookworm.
In Marry’s novel, a local library holds the key to a small town’s biggest secrets.
After fleeing an abusive husband, New Zealander Jessamine Sibley takes a new job at a library in a small town in Bent River County, Virginia. At first, she’s excited about her fresh start. She has a new career, new friends, and a new house that she inherited from a friend in her book club. But it soon becomes clear that not everything is what it seems in Bent River County, and the library seems to be right at the center of all the intrigue. First, there’s Jessamine’s rude and flaky coworker, Drusilla,who seems determined to keep Jessamine from doing her job. Her own house is being taken over by overgrown weeds, and it turns out to be hiding a secret of its own. Meanwhile, the town’s wealthiest man, who’s likely never heard the word noin his life, will do anything to make sure nothing in Bent River County ever changes. It turns out that the corruption in the town runs deep, and Jessamine will find herself caught up in it all—and even arrested for murder. For all of its small-town hijinks and crime-novel elements, Marry’s novel is, at its heart, a love letter to libraries and all that they represent to a small community: “We have a remarkable library….As library employees, we have given our best to our county.” Readers will find that Jessamine and the varied members of her found family are all easy to root for as they make the library their home away from home. Although the story takes some time to truly pick up speed, once the drama begins to unfurl, it pulls the reader in and refuses to let go.
An intriguing and cozy mystery that’s perfect for any bookworm.Pub Date: April 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781961548237
Page Count: 294
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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