Amos Walker, waiting in the wings ever since Sweet Women Lie (1990) while Estleman worked on his epic cycle of Detroit crime novels (Stress, 1996, etc.), is back—back to the 1940s, it seems, since his search for video producer Neil Catalin, whose quiet demeanor masked an obsession with film noir classics, takes Walker chasing down the same rain-soaked streets. Walker's client, Catalin's wife Gay, wonders what his former mistress, two-bit actress Vesta Mannering, knows about his disappearance, even though she swears she hasn't seen him for over a year. Walker wonders what Catalin's partner, Leo Webb, knows about the meeting Catalin stalked out of right before he stepped off the edge of the earth, and when it is that Vesta's ex, the Shotgun bandit who went to jail when he wouldn't tell the cops the location of his $92,000, will be out on the street again. The natives on Mackinac Island, where Catalin's psychiatrist Ashraf Naheen plies a busy trade in upscale headshrinking, wonder how long it'll be before Naheen's secret videotapes of all his sessions lead to fireworks. And the police wonder how many more corpses they'll be finding before they can bring the missing Catalin to book for a series of murders Walker's convinced he hasn't committed. But the answer to all these riddles may just be on-screen—in the 50-year-old Dick Powell suspenser Pitfall—for all to see. Detroit's summer of power outages provides a brilliant backdrop for Walker's Chandleresque storytelling at its most gaudy and orchestral, with enough lush villainy for three ordinary novels.
Pub Date: April 3, 1997
ISBN: 0-89296-633-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
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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