Lots of comical characters keep the chuckles coming as the determined Poppy solves a surprisingly difficult puzzle.
A widow’s return to Cape May, New Jersey, has been murder in more ways than one.
Poppy McAllister’s already been mistakenly arrested for murder upon her return for a high school reunion (Class Reunions Are Murder, 2018). Now her eccentric Aunt Ginny is in trouble. Poppy, who’d never planned to stay around, has invested time and money in a scheme to turn Ginny’s Queen Anne Victorian into a B&B using her considerable baking skills to help finance the project by selling her yummy gluten-free items at a local coffee shop. Her contractor, Itty Bitty Smitty, whose war cry is “I can fix that,” is behind schedule for their grand opening, and his running battle with Poppy’s controlling mother-in-law, Georgina, who’s invested just enough to have a say, frays everyone’s nerves. Then suddenly Aunt Ginny, who’s taking some new pills, starts sleepwalking and bringing home odd objects she’s pinched from neighbors’ homes while helping herself to desserts. So when Brody Brandt, one of the neighbors, is found murdered, the police arrest Ginny, aka the “Snack Bandit.” Poppy, who’s certain that Ginny is innocent, sets out to find the guilty party while she juggles two boyfriends, her former high school sweetheart Tim, a chef, and handsome Gia, who owns the coffee shop where she plies her goods. Unhappy with her body image, she can’t convince herself that either really desires her. As she digs into Brandt’s background, she discovers a number of possible motives. Now if she can only keep Ginny out of trouble while she tracks down the real killer.
Lots of comical characters keep the chuckles coming as the determined Poppy solves a surprisingly difficult puzzle.Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1305-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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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