Earthy language, quirky suspects, and much related tomfoolery for those who like their comic mayhem painted in broad strokes.
The founding member of the Murder-by-Month club is at it again.
Mira James, who ekes out a meager living as a reporter, librarian, and wannabe private eye, can claim a more dubious distinction: every month since she arrived in Battle Lake, Minnesota, she’s found at least one dead body (February Fever, 2015, etc.), and her latest discovery really creeps her out. Her neighbor at the counter of the local diner is a life-size doll, one of many made by Ida Gilbertson of the Senior Sunset home. Trying to escape Kennie Rogers, the mayor known for her odd business ventures and eccentric wardrobe, Mira knocks the doll over and finds a dead woman inside. Police chief Gary Wohnt sternly warns her to butt out of the investigation. But with her outrageous octogenarian pal, Mrs. Berns, at her side, Mira can’t help but do a little sleuthing. Her romance with superhot Johnny Leeson is threatened by Mira’s inability to commit. Worried that he may become the next victim, she breaks up with him. The mayor, meanwhile, has started an intern program whose first member is a wealthy woman who’s assigned to the library. Her husband has a roving eye which may have alighted on the latest victim, who turns out to have been a part-time nurse at the Senior Sunset. Mira keeps meeting more weird characters: a young boy who offers to spy for her, a man in a coma at the nursing home who the residents think brings good luck to the trinkets they leave in his hand, and a loner who lives in a cabin off the grid. Even the mayor gets into the oddball competition with her latest brainstorm, phone sex with a strong Minnesota accent.
Earthy language, quirky suspects, and much related tomfoolery for those who like their comic mayhem painted in broad strokes.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7387-5263-1
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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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