Hunter (Fleur de Lies, 2014, etc.) returns for the tenth time with forced humor and annoyingly daffy characters. Although...
A Bavarian tour goes off track with the murder of a clairvoyant.
It takes gumption to herd willful senior citizens around Munich during Oktoberfest. But the co-owners of Destinations Travel of Windsor City, Iowa, Emily Andrew Miceli and her husband, Etienne, are experienced handlers of old folks, most of whom work at a lock-and-key company back home. Most of their charges seem devoted to taking close-up selfies that exclude the scenery they came so far to see. An unexpected bonus is Zola Czarnecki, a CPA by day who offers to tell fortunes for the others. When she urges Emily and Astrid Peterson, a musician in one of the oompah bands on the tour, to avoid a certain alley, almost immediately a freak explosion injures Emily, vaporizes Astrid, and sends Astrid’s accordion in its armorlike case hurtling through space. Its miraculous reappearance is small consolation for Astrid’s mourning band mates (at least the male musicians). Worse still, Zola’s killed before she can fulfill her promise of readings all around. And in the midst of tours of historic sites—mostly wasted on the geezers and biddies in tow—the search is on for whoever had something to fear from Zola’s paranormal insight. As if Emily didn’t have enough on her hands with her mother’s sudden episode of temporary global amnesia, her father’s humiliating accordion debut, and her rube clients’ demands to know where the hot dogs are on their platters of wiener schnitzel, she’s coping with the mystery of Astrid’s journal. More than one man on the tour seems anxious to find it—but enough to kill for it?
Hunter (Fleur de Lies, 2014, etc.) returns for the tenth time with forced humor and annoyingly daffy characters. Although the flying-accordion motif is at odds with the sad fate of its owner, the dexterously constructed plot saves this cozy from utter bathos.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7387-4034-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.
A former mob enforcer–turned–private eye is called in to investigate the savage murder of a Mafia leg-breaker in New York's Hudson Valley and finds himself on the trail of corporate espionage and a serial killer long believed dead.
The second book in Barron's series featuring Isaiah Coleridge (Blood Standard, 2018) seems, more than the debut, an obvious attempt to establish Coleridge as a strongman smartass in the Jack Reacher mold. The fight scenes are the written equivalent of action-movie choreography but without suspense, because the setup—Isaiah being constantly outnumbered—is so clearly a prelude for the no-sweat beat downs he doles out to the various thugs who get in his way. There's nary a memorable wisecrack in the entire book. What does stick in the mind are the sections that go out of their way to be writerly. It's not enough to say that it was a starry night in the Alaskan wilderness. Coleridge (the name is a clue to the series' literary aspirations) says, "I could've read a book by the cascading illumination of the stars." A later flash of insight is conveyed by "The scalpel of grim epiphany sliced into my consciousness." What with the narrative that spreads like spider cracks in glass and the far-too-frequent flashbacks to the man who was Coleridge's mentor, you might wish another scalpel had made its way through the manuscript.
This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1289-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not exactly groundbreaking, but fans will enjoy this cozy Christmas addition to a long-running series.
Christmas is nigh, and there’s a murder to solve.
Inspector Nivens may have ambitions far beyond his local posting, but he’s so hapless as a detective that it’s no surprise when he loses a sensitive case involving the murder of well-to-do Margaret Starling in her yard to Inspector Gerald Witherspoon of the Metropolitan Police. Witherspoon, whose record is stellar, is independently wealthy, good-natured, and unaware that for years his staff and friends, especially his clever housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, have fed him the clues that have been indispensable in closing his murder cases (Mrs. Jeffries Delivers the Goods, 2019, etc.). Determined to solve the puzzle of Margaret’s murder before Christmas, Witherspoon’s staff scatter throughout the neighborhood of the Starling residence, each of them searching for clues using their questioning methods tailored to every social stratum of Victorian London, from the housemaid to the well-heeled neighbors. Margaret’s recent odd behavior seems to have something to do with the Angel Alms Society of Fulham and Putney, where she was a generous donor who served on the advisory board. She was also suing Mrs. Huxton, her next-door neighbor, whom she accused of trying to ruin her reputation. Alibis are tested and possible enemies questioned. The suspects range from that neighbor to Margaret’s deceased niece’s husband to the vicar of St. Andrew’s Church, all of whom have reason to be angry with her. Mrs. Jeffries struggles to get on the right track as other members of the amateur detective group pass information to Witherspoon’s constable, who’s in on their scheme. It all comes down to love or money.
Not exactly groundbreaking, but fans will enjoy this cozy Christmas addition to a long-running series.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-49224-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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