Solid work for the stolid Chapman (The Lammas Feast, 2002, etc.) in a nicely drawn portrait of domestic life in medieval...
Roger the Chapman, medieval peddler and meddler, is used to having his former mother-in-law pay him no mind, but when his wife also thinks he’s hallucinating, he must prove he’s telling the truth.
Roger takes shelter from a sudden storm in a house abandoned for the 50 years since a wife and daughter killed their brutal husband and father. Imagine his shock when he finds it occupied by people who first try to kill him and then kill the captain of an Irish slaver. After the concussed Chapman is fished from the river and returned to his wife and children, he tells his story to his unbelieving womenfolk and Sergeant Richard Manifold, Sheriff’s Officer. Roger’s investigations send him to the crypt of St. Giles Church, built over an old synagogue, and big enough to provide storage for the entire village and a trysting place for Luke Prettywood and Marianne Avenel, wife of locally prominent Robin Avenel. He also calls on hunchbacked apothecary Silas Witherspoon, who sells unusual hand-sewn sheaths to prevent conception. Timothy Plummer, Spymaster General for King Edward, keeps dogging Roger’s footsteps in various disguises. When Robin Avenel is killed and Roger’s former friend, Burl Hodge, framed for the murder, Roger untangles royal and domestic intrigue to clear Burl as well as his own reputation.
Solid work for the stolid Chapman (The Lammas Feast, 2002, etc.) in a nicely drawn portrait of domestic life in medieval Bristol.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7278-6078-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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
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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