Though Moore (Woman Strangled—News at Ten, 2009, etc.) doesn’t write well enough to maintain her heroine’s distinctive voice...
Introducing Dallas’s Debutante Detective Agency, which deals in minor mysteries and major sass.
Debutante/college student/Southern charmer Dainty Prescott’s got a bit of a problem. Her perfect-on-paper boyfriend Drex seems to be cheating on her with Paislee Pfeiffer, the wife of their TV-producer boss. She knows enough not to make a scene—a fatal no-no for a lady of The Rubanbleu—but how in the world will she find a replacement escort to her sister’s coming-out ball? Plus, Gordon Pfeiffer thinks Dainty would make the perfect amateur sleuth to get to the bottom of his wife’s affair. Dainty, who already knows more than she wants to, can’t say no when Mr. Pfeiffer promises her a full-time externship in exchange for any information she can ferret out. And that’s not all. Dainty is tripped up in what she might call a petite mess when she’s almost arrested for accidentally running another red light. Officer Buckman—Butt Man, as Dainty calls him—is poised to let Dainty off the hook for her criminal offense but is determined to give her a hard time in the most pleasant and flirtatious way possible. The zany cast is rounded out by some close girlfriends and Dainty’s proper grandmother, whom Dainty wishes didn’t carry the family gene for ADOS (“Attention deficit—oh, shiny!”).
Though Moore (Woman Strangled—News at Ten, 2009, etc.) doesn’t write well enough to maintain her heroine’s distinctive voice while she juggles her riotously complicated life, it’s impossible to not get wrapped up in her debutante’s debut.Pub Date: July 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59414-877-4
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Five Star/Gale Cengage
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
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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