Medievalists will enjoy Roger’s perambulations through the grand palaces and mean streets of London until a chance...
Finding home life a bit of a strain, Roger the Chapman (The Midsummer Rose, 2004, etc.) is less reluctant than he might be to make a trip to London when his services are requested by the King’s nephew and the Duke of Gloucester’s spymaster Timothy Plummer.
The Dowager Duchess of Burgundy is making her first visit to London in 12 years. Fulk Quantrell, the son of Veronica, her favorite waiting woman, had come to London to inform Veronica’s twin sister, Judith St. Clair, of her demise. Within a month Judith had made her attractive nephew her heir. Now that the lucky man has been found beaten to death, the Duchess wants his murderer found. Roger gets some help from Bertram Serifaber, an ebullient young officer in the Gloucester household. There’s no lack of suspects among the reinstated heirs: Lionel Broderer, the cousin of Judith’s first husband, who runs her thriving embroidery business; Alcina Threadgold, the daughter of Judith’s second husband; and Jocelyn St. Clair, the son of her present husband. Roger scours the filthy, bustling streets questioning family members, beggars, prostitutes and royal servants in an effort to discover the killer. When Alcina’s uncle fortuitously dies, he suspects another murder.
Medievalists will enjoy Roger’s perambulations through the grand palaces and mean streets of London until a chance recognition brings the mystery to a satisfactory close.Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7278-6216-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2005
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.
An Arizona accountant with a penchant for solving murders lands a fishy case.
Sophie "Phee" Kimball might lead a dull life if it weren’t for her mother, Harriet Plunkett, and Harriet’s neurotic Chiweenie, Streetman. As it is, Harriet lives near her daughter in Sun City West and has a wide circle of zany friends who’ve helped Phee solve several mysteries (Molded 4 Murder, 2019, etc.) while she’s been working for Williams Investigations along with her boyfriend, Marshall, a former police officer. While Phee’s visiting Harriet one day, Streetman dashes over to the neighbors’ barbecue grill and unearths a dead body under a tarp. As usual, the overwhelmed local police ask Williams Investigations to help—er, consult. Harriet’s main concern is getting costumes made for the reluctant Streetman, whom she’s entered in a series of contests starting with Halloween and progressing through Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, and St. Patrick’s Day. One of her friends is an accomplished seamstress who goes all out making gorgeous costumes that will beat an obnoxious lady who looks down on mutts. The dead man is identified as Cameron Tully, a seafood distributor, who was poisoned by the locally ubiquitous sago pine. At the first dog contest, Elaine Meschow has to be rushed to the hospital after she gets a dose of the same thing. The owner of a gourmet dog food company, Elaine is lucky enough to recover. After Streetman takes second place, Harriet’s team redoubles its efforts for the next contest while Phee and Marshall, who are moving into a new place together, continue to hunt for clues. A restaurant holdup and a scheme to use empty houses for hookups for high school kids add to the confusion.
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2455-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
All these problems are handsomely solved at the unsurprising cost of making the human characters less interesting than the...
Just when you thought you’d seen a detective in every guise imaginable, here comes one in sheep’s clothing.
For years, George Glenn hasn’t been close to anyone but his sheep. Everyday he lets them out, pastures them, reads to them and brings them safely back home to his barn in the guilelessly named Irish village of Glennkill. Now George lies dead, pinned to the ground by a spade. Although his flock haven’t had much experience with this sort of thing, they’re determined to bring his killer to justice. There are of course several obstacles, and debut novelist Swann deals with them in appealingly matter-of-fact terms. Sheep can’t talk to people; they can only listen in on conversations between George’s widow Kate and Bible-basher Beth Jameson. Not even the smartest of them, Othello, Miss Maple (!) and Mopple the Whale, can understand much of what the neighborhood priest is talking about, except that his name is evidently God. They’re afraid to confront suspects like butcher Abraham Rackham and Gabriel O’Rourke, the Gaelic-speaking charmer who’s raising a flock for slaughter. And even after a series of providential discoveries and brainwaves reveals the answer to the riddle, they don’t know how to tell the Glennkill citizenry.
All these problems are handsomely solved at the unsurprising cost of making the human characters less interesting than the sheep. But the sustained tone of straight-faced wonderment is magical.Pub Date: June 5, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-385-52111-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Flying Dolphin/Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
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