Forget plots and subplots. Moore (Deb on Air—Live At Five, 2013, etc.) has so much going on that readers may have to take...
A debutante finds herself responsible for handling a mishmash of potential disasters.
Though she’s just returned from rescuing her ungrateful little sister, Teensy, from south of the border, Dainty Prescott is soon thrust into another dangerous situation when she and some friends witness the murder of a spa’s owners and staff. Dainty leads her friends through a dangerous escape, but she can’t get past the injustice of getting into trouble in the first place. She never would’ve been at the spa if wealthy businessman Avery Marshall hadn’t called in a favor and asked Dainty to turn his tomboy stepdaughter, Dawn, into the next big thing at the Rubanbleu ball. Thinking a spa weekend with some well-bred influences might make Dawn a bit more of a lady, Avery insisted that Dainty be her escort. But witnessing murders really puts a damper on the girls’ weekend and seems to make Dawn act a little crazy—though later it turns out that she’s stopped her psych meds. This is only the beginning of a slew of barely connected troubles for Dainty, including her father’s decision to put her childhood house on the market and her grandmother’s apparent drowning in a cruise-related incident. Barely there for her is boyfriendish lawman Jim Bruckman, though his absence may depend more on the limits of narrative space than on the plot: Dainty’s Debutante Detective Agency and her job at WBFD-TV barely rate mentions with all the other incidents crammed in.
Forget plots and subplots. Moore (Deb on Air—Live At Five, 2013, etc.) has so much going on that readers may have to take notes.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4328-3095-3
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Five Star/Gale Cengage
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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