A surprising and tantalizing murder mystery.
In this novel, an unassuming lawyer tries to help a client he’s in love with and gets pulled into a criminal conspiracy.
Rory McEntyre is a successful attorney but has always been envious of his old friend from prep school Tom Williams, a handsome “superstar money manager” with a beautiful wife named Monica. Apparently, there are no limits to Tom’s luck—he buys a lottery ticket, wins $60 million, and asks Rory to oversee the establishment of a trust for its management. But shortly after, Rory receives a panicked phone call from Monica with shocking news: Tom died by turning a gun on himself. Besides the inexplicability of Tom’s act, Rory encounters further peculiarities. Tom’s lottery ticket has disappeared, and he seems to have transferred the majority of his money to an offshore bank account, leaving Monica all but destitute. Rory digs deeper, assuming the role of Monica’s lawyer and “knight in shining armor”—and discovers that Tom was involved in some sort of fraud while working for Northrup Investments. In order to cover his tracks, the head of the company, Jack Northrup, dispatches his henchman to silence Monica. This is an entangled and delightfully unpredictable tale—Chapman has constructed a suspenseful story that will deeply draw readers in. Unfortunately, the author’s writing style sometimes lacks luster—consider Monica’s confession of her feelings to Rory: “You think Tom was every girl’s dream. He was confident and handsome and smart, and rich, of course. But you were sweet and kind. You cared about other people. You wanted to change the world. I always wondered what it would have been like with you.” But despite the uneven prose, this novel offers an entertaining and gripping crime drama.
A surprising and tantalizing murder mystery.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-958339-07-7
Page Count: 314
Publisher: First Legacy Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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