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MURDER IN THE MARGINS

A lively series debut for an engaging heroine.

An American transplant investigates the death of a British busybody.

It looks as if gothic novelist Penelope Parish may turn out to be a one-hit wonder. After realizing modest but genuine success with The Lady of the Moors, Pen finds herself stymied by writer’s block. Fortunately, she’s able to parlay her talents into a stint as writer-in-residence at the Open Book bookshop in the village of Upper-Chumley-on-Stoke. She arrives just in time for Worthington Fest, an annual hoo-hah sponsored by Arthur Worthington, the village’s resident aristocrat. Unfortunately, the Fest is marred by the discovery of Regina Bosworth’s body in the wine cellar of Worthington’s castle. To tell the truth, bossy Regina isn’t much mourned in Upper-Chumley-on-Stoke. Her husband, Gordon, quickly finds solace in the company of barmaid Daphne Potter while Pen’s new friends Gladys Watkins and India Culpepper whisper avidly about the secrets Regina held over the heads of her fellow Chumleyans. It isn’t until Charlotte Davenport, Arthur’s fiancee, asks for help that Pen decides Regina’s murderer really ought to be caught. Charlotte is much envied by the villagers both for her success as a novelist and for her conquest of the village’s own duke, who they think should be marrying an English girl (preferably one of their daughters) rather than an upstart Yank. But Pen, who isn’t envious, agrees to help her fellow American. Soon the inquisitive writer is probing Regina’s past and finding more spice than she’s enjoyed at the local takeaway.

A lively series debut for an engaging heroine.

Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-09926-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020

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FATAL FIRST EDITION

Plenty of hair-raising adventures combine with more cerebral pursuits in this enjoyable tale.

A murder on a train carries echoes of another fateful railroad trip.

Library director Lindsey Norris and her husband, Mike Sullivan, are in Chicago attending a conference. During a book restoration lecture on the last day, someone leaves a bag under Lindsey’s seat containing a first edition of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train inscribed from the author to Alfred Hitchcock, making it potentially very valuable. Lindsey turns it over to conference head Henry Standish, a man with a checkered past that’s earned him multiple enemies. Lindsey and Sully, along with Henry and many other conference participants, had taken a train from the East Coast to Chicago for the conference; now, as they settle into their roomette for the return trip, prospects for a pleasant ride turn sour when Lydia Armand—who took over Henry’s job after he was accused of fraud—turns up. That night, after some nasty verbal jousts, Lindsey hears thumping noises from the next compartment and sees a person shrouded in black in the passageway. The next morning, Henry is found murdered in his compartment. Upon the arrival of a dangerous snowstorm, the police remove passengers to a local inn near Briar Creek, Connecticut, Lindsey and Sully’s hometown, while they investigate. When the valuable book turns up in Lindsey’s laptop bag, she takes it to the police, while Sully, a boat captain, heads out in the storm to deliver food to nearby islands. Much to her consternation, Lindsey is unable to contact Sully, and a search discovers his boat drifting offshore. Clues from the boat indicate that Sully may have been spirited away, and Lindsey resolves to search for him while she seeks a motive for Standish’s murder.

Plenty of hair-raising adventures combine with more cerebral pursuits in this enjoyable tale.

Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024

ISBN: 9780593639337

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

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BLOOD TRAIL

More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...

Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.

Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.

More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.

Pub Date: May 20, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008

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