A British Erin Brockovich meets The Insider with a touch of Rumpole of the Bailey in this agile legal thriller.
Which came first, the chicken or the superbug? That’s the question that stymies beleaguered barrister Geri Lander. Everything seems to be on the line for this feisty, indefatigable young widow. Despite a recent big win for the law firm she owns with three partners, she’s dealing with an overwhelming range of personal and professional problems. The bank lender wants to call in an overdraft the business has drawn; the staff are revolting against the other partners’ belligerence; one partner has done a bunk after a mortgage fraud investigation; Geri’s 11-year-old son Rory is being bullied at school; and her after-school provider has quit. But Geri’s life and the life of the firm reverse engines the minute prickly, middle-aged Joanna Pascoe walks in. Pascoe’s physician husband has died suddenly of “unnatural causes,” perhaps including a drug-resistant superbug he contracted after eating contaminated chicken korma. Geri, Joanna, Rory, and a Cambridge microbiology professor nose about until they uncover a government cover-up of an antibiotics scheme potentially more devastating than the mad cow disaster. Debut author Bettle, an East Anglian barrister, is clearly at home with the inner workings of the British legal system, supplying court details from disclosure to trial. As murder and romance envelop appealing Geri, her continuing problems make her sleuthing success all the more desirable and credible. Readers can only hope that Bettle has a series in mind.
A British Erin Brockovich meets The Insider with a touch of Rumpole of the Bailey in this agile legal thriller.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-26244-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/Minotaur
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
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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