A gripping setup, some workaday sleuthing, and a neatly turned solution.
Emma Djan, the cop-turned–private eye who waded through every swamp of corruption in Ghana in her debut, The Missing American (2020), investigates a second case that’s much more intimate.
The law may believe that fashion mogul Lady Araba Tagoe was murdered by her chauffeur, Kweku-Sam, but her aunt, Dele Tetteyfio, isn’t having any of it. Convinced that the Ghana Police Service has beaten a confession out of Kweku-Sam just so that they won’t have to figure out how the real killer could have penetrated Araba’s exclusive gated community without raising any hackles, she wants Yemo Sowah’s agency to look into the case—assuming of course that she can get a 10% discount—preferably by finding evidence against Araba’s sometime lover, Augustus Seeza. Augustus is almost too obvious a suspect, a TV news producer and interviewer coddled by his parents, High Court justice Julius Seeza and his wife, and separated from heiress Bertha Longdon, the spouse who’s had it up to here with his drinking, his affairs, and his constant promises to turn over a new leaf. And it certainly looks suspicious that the forensic evidence Sgt. Isaac Boateng collected at the murder scene was never processed by the police lab and Boateng himself was reassigned from Homicide to Domestic Violence. But the case turns out to be more complex than Auntie Dele imagines, and there’s no guarantee that she’ll be pleased with the results Emma and her colleagues dig up by assuming false identities and going undercover at every waking moment.
A gripping setup, some workaday sleuthing, and a neatly turned solution.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-641-29207-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Forget the forgettable plot and savor the loving descriptions of French cuisine and couture.
In her third American in Paris adventure, set in 1950, Julia Child’s friend Tabitha Knight finds her sixth and seventh bodies.
As soon as Tabitha realizes she’s left one of her gloves behind in Maison Lannet, the lower-budget fashion studio Christian Dior’s protégé Rose-Marie Lannet has established, seasoned fans will know what to expect when she and Julia return: the corpse of Madame Lannet, strangled with a piece of designer lace. When the sûreté inspector in charge of the investigation is called home by a family emergency and replaced by the familiar Inspecteur Étienne Merveille, everything seems as comfy as can be, at least until Tabitha stumbles on the body of Gabrielle Pineau, Madame Lannet’s vendeuse and amoreuse, stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. In the meantime, Tabitha lands the first case she’s actually asked to take on: There’s been a burglary at the shoe boutique Godot & Block, whose owner suspects his employee Mathilde Pillon’s boyfriend, and Mathilde’s sister begs Tabitha to clear his name. Once a very cursory investigation reveals a much more likely suspect, rival shoemaker Philippe Wathelet, the only mysteries that remain are whether and how Cambridge intends to tie the two cases together, what connection they can possibly have to the collaborationists who fed the occupying Nazis information during the war, and what Tabitha will do about the sudden romantic attraction she feels toward Inspecteur Merveille.
Forget the forgettable plot and savor the loving descriptions of French cuisine and couture.Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781496751195
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant addition to the longtime Library Lover’s Mysteries series.
A writer-in-residence program wreaks havoc at a suburban Connecticut library.
Library director Lindsey Norris is justifiably proud of the varied and popular special programs she and children’s librarian Beth Barker offer at the Briar Creek library. Seasonally themed children’s storytimes, technology workshops, and a “crafternoon” every Thursday give patrons more than just a chance to borrow books. But luring Helen Monroe, author of the acclaimed Mallory Quest mysteries, for an extended winter stint as writer-in-residence was a coup even for Lindsey. With her Louis Vuitton handbag and Ray-Ban sunglasses, Helen seems a bit much for Briar Creek, and Lindsey worries that the writer’s frosty demeanor may put some of the locals off. But out-of-towner Jackie Lewis exudes enthusiasm about Helen’s visit—so much enthusiasm, in fact, that Lindsey worries that she may have drawn a stalker to the library’s door. Meanwhile, book banner Betty Caruthers, who’s taken against Helen, vows to derail the whole residence project. It takes a while to determine which of these three toxic women will be the victim, let alone which will be her killer. Once the fatal blow falls, details show that the relationships among the trio are older and more complicated than they first seemed. Still, McKinlay seems more invested in engaging readers’ affinity for Lindsey, her staff, and her patrons than in asking them to figure out who killed whom and why.
A pleasant addition to the longtime Library Lover’s Mysteries series.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593639368
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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