A solid but formulaic procedural that should satisfy the heroine’s fans but may frustrate newcomers.
A child’s disappearance triggers dark memories for a Boston cop.
Ellery Hathaway’s idyllic day with her lover, Reed Markham, and his young daughter, Tula, at Boston Common turns horribly wrong when 12-year-old Chloe Lockhart, another Common visitor, goes missing. Ellery, a Boston police detective, and Reed, an FBI Special Agent, take on the investigation. It’s a red flag when Chloe’s father, Martin, calls his attorney, Stephen Wintour, into a meeting at the police station. Chloe’s well-paid nanny, Margery, who was supposed to be watching the girl, is the first to fall under scrutiny. Then Chloe’s mother, Teresa, drops a bombshell: Several years ago, while she was married to her first husband, her son was kidnapped and killed. Ellery and her partner, Dorie, begin their probe with Margery’s husband, Frank, who has a criminal record, then move to Chloe’s parents. Meanwhile, Reed uses his considerable resources to get to work profiling. An anonymous tipster claims that Martin’s having an affair with his employee Amanda McFarland. The story follows a traditional template as the sleuths question Chloe’s friends, scour her room for clues, delve into her online activity, and follow every obscure lead that promises to lead them to yet another. Schaffhausen’s prose is similarly measured and deliberate. Shadowing the investigation is Ellery’s painful past, which is doled out in tidbits.
A solid but formulaic procedural that should satisfy the heroine’s fans but may frustrate newcomers.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-2502-4965-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
A surprising number of suspects for a 40-year-old killing keep the bickering cast of characters hiding secrets.
A mystery from the past threatens a farmer’s future.
Shiloh Bellamy left a lucrative job in California to rescue her family farm in Cherry Glen, Michigan, which had fallen into disrepair due to her father’s lack of interest. An unexpected inheritance helped get things back in shape and pays the salary of her farm manager, Chesney, who lives in the farmhouse with her younger sister, Whit, while Shiloh happily lives in a cabin in the woods. Thanksgiving dinner at the farmhouse brings some surprises. Whit doesn’t show up, and Chesney reveals she’s worried about her. Shiloh’s boyfriend, Sheriff Milan Penbrook, brings his acerbic mother, who suggests she should be thinking about marriage and babies. Milan isn’t happy about Shiloh’s former boyfriend Quinn Killian attending. Her father, Sully, arrives with unpleasant Connie Baskins and stuns Shiloh by announcing they’re engaged. The veiled hostilities at the table seem minor when Shiloh’s pug, Huckleberry, chases her chickens into a corner of the orchard and seizes a bone they unearthed, which is clearly human. The body it comes from is that of James Ripley, who vanished before Shiloh was born. Unfortunately, the farm is in the district of Chief Randy, who is Quinn’s father and dislikes both Shiloh and Milan. Chief Randy is also pretty lazy and closes the case, declaring the killer to be Shiloh’s grandmother, who believed Ripley murdered her daughter. Sure her adored grandmother is innocent, Shiloh investigates on her own, putting herself in danger from the real killer.
A surprising number of suspects for a 40-year-old killing keep the bickering cast of characters hiding secrets.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781728273082
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A novel hook introduces an otherwise standard cozy.
The risks mount as the oddball business venture Emma Westlake launched in A Plus One for Murder (2021) picks up steam.
It took a lot of guts, some ingenuity, and a little bit of prodding from her octogenarian pal, Dottie Adler, but it looks like A Friend for Hire, Emma’s service for folks who need someone to offer unconditional support in their hour of need, is going to be a decent earner after all. In addition to Dottie, who still pays Emma for having tea with her once a week, there are three other clients and a fourth in the works. But Kim Felder, Emma’s newest paying friend, comes with a lot of baggage. She’s sad and lonely because now that her kids are grown, she has no one who needs her. But she’s also really, really angry because her husband dumped her for his thin, blond secretary. Emma encourages Kim to vent her frustrations on paper, writing down all the things she’d like to do to her ex. Which might be good psychology but turns out to be terrible advice from a legal standpoint, since once someone actually does strangle that old cheat Roger, the list provides Deputy Jack Riordan ample evidence to arrest Kim. Now Emma has two problems: First, her client is in the hoosegow, and second, she’s fighting with Jack just as their relationship is moving from the “friends” to the “dating” column. There’s only one way to fix this mess, and it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who has to crack this case.
A novel hook introduces an otherwise standard cozy.Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-59333-478-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
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