An amusing cozy with quirky characters and a down-to-earth heroine with plenty of moxie.
A private eye doing her civic duty gets embroiled in several nasty cases.
Retired TV star Poppy Harmon was forced to go back into business when her cheating husband left her a penniless widow (Poppy Harmon Investigates, 2018). Drawing inspiration from Jack Colt, PI, the well-received show in which she starred with Rod Harper, she’s launched the Desert Flower Detective Agency, whose staff includes Poppy and her 60-ish sidekicks, pushy Iris and retiring Violet, whose 12-year-old grandson, Wyatt, is a talented hacker who helps them after school. Finding that three golden age females don’t inspire confidence among their target clientele, they’ve hired handsome aspiring actor Matt Cameron, aka Matt Flowers, who does a bang-up job pretending to be a detective. Poppy’s serving on the jury in the trial of famous crooner Tony Molina, who stands accused of assaulting celebrity chef Carmine Cicci over an overcooked steak. Elected as jury foreman, Poppy persuades all but one of the jurors to vote guilty in the open-and-shut case, but the last juror, a young man named Alden Kenny, refuses to budge, hanging the jury and fueling Poppy’s suspicions that Kenny was paid off. Those suspicions are left to simmer when Rod Harper, Poppy's former co-star, hires the agency to find his missing daughter, Lara, a wild child who vanished after an argument. Her credit card has been used nearby at several places in the Coachella Valley, but when Lara turns up, she claims to have been on a spiritual journey to Nepal. Poppy must also deal with Rod’s renewed interest in pursuing a relationship with her and her daughter Heather’s release from prison after an involuntary manslaughter charge. When juror Kenny calls begging for her help, she goes to his house and finds him dead in his pool, renewing her interest in Tony Molina. The cases turn out to be related in a number of surprising ways.
An amusing cozy with quirky characters and a down-to-earth heroine with plenty of moxie.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1391-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite a provocative and topical premise, and a strong opening, Picoult fails this time, her seventh, to rise above...
An uneven reworking of tabloid headlines: a young woman is charged with infanticide, and a hard-boiled attorney agrees to defend her. With one crucial distinction: the defendant is Amish.
In the Amish community of Paradise, Pennsylvania, 18-year-old Katie Fisher, unwed, is the chief suspect in the death by asphyxiation of a newborn found in the Fisher family’s barn. A medical exam reveals that Katie has just given birth, but she insists she has never been pregnant. Enter Ellie Hathaway, a 39-year-old (and single) Philadelphia defense attorney visiting her aunt Leda. Leda, also Amish, prevails upon an initially reluctant Ellie to defend Katie. Ellie moves in with the Fishers to prepare Katie’s defense, a device that allows Picoult (Keeping Faith, 1999, etc.) to juxtapose the devout Amish (or Plain Folk) and their spartan way of life with city-slicker Ellie. But as Ellie befriends Katie, unsettling inconsistencies in the latter’s story emerge. As in Rashomon, the truth proves elusive, shifting, and often unwelcome. Is Katie suffering from a genuine psychosis, repressing events too traumatic to remember? Or was she simply trying to conceal an affair and pregnancy she knew would have led to her being shunned by her own people? The drama echoes with conflicts in Ellie’s own life: her loudly ticking biological clock, the end of a tepid relationship with another attorney, and the resumption of a love affair with Coop, her college sweetheart-turned-psychologist (and eventual expert witness on Katie’s behalf). All, of course, will be tidily resolved by trial’s end.
Despite a provocative and topical premise, and a strong opening, Picoult fails this time, her seventh, to rise above paint-by-numbers formula. (Author tour)Pub Date: May 9, 2000
ISBN: 0-671-77612-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
A rollicking tale of desire, murder, and mayhem complete with Victorian atmosphere and two bickering leads.
An eccentric pair of late-Victorian detectives delve into a case involving the royal family.
Through many a wild escapade (A Dangerous Collaboration, 2019, etc.), Veronica Speedwell and Stoker Templeton-Vane have danced around their passionate feelings for each other. Just when the highly independent Veronica is about to commit to a full physical relationship—"The truth, dear reader, is that I was as ready for him as any filly ready for the stud"—a new case hurls them into perhaps their most dangerous adventure yet. Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk, a power in royal circles, calls them to a meeting with the Princess of Wales and Inspector Archibond of Scotland Yard. The meeting is fraught, for Veronica is the unacknowledged daughter of the Prince of Wales, who deserted Veronica and her Catholic mother to marry Alexandra of Denmark. Since the Yard is overwhelmed with the hunt for Jack the Ripper, who’s terrorizing London, Archibond asks the sleuthing duo to recover a diamond star that the princess's eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, aka Eddy, has given to Madame Aurore, the owner of a private sex club. At first the sleuths decline, but when Lady Wellie suffers a severe angina attack, some snooping reveals her fear that Prince Eddy is suspected of being the Ripper. With the help of Stoker’s brother, they attend a masked ball at the club whose members indulge in all sorts of sexual depravity. After an exciting and informative evening, they run into Eddy, a dim but likable lad, who’s with them when their attempt to open Aurore’s safe ends with their discovery of her body under her bed. All three are kidnapped by Veronica’s Uncle de Clare, an Irishman who wants to place Veronica on the throne and free Ireland. Now they must escape, return Eddy unharmed to the bosom of his family, and discover who murdered Aurore.
A rollicking tale of desire, murder, and mayhem complete with Victorian atmosphere and two bickering leads.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-451-49074-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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