Mayhew’s good-natured tale of rural village friendships will delight fans of the English countryside while proving a trial...
An amateur theatrical production has deadly consequences for the village of Frog End.
Tired of silly pantomimes, Marjorie Cuthbertson, director of the Frog End Players, has her heart set on making the troupe's annual Christmas extravaganza an earnest adaptation of The Snow Queen. And she’s got her heart equally set on her leading lady: former model Joan Dryden, who’s moved into the village with her husband, movie director Kenneth, and their bratty teenager. Since Hassels is only the Drydens’ country home, Marjorie finds that the real challenge isn’t getting snooty Joan’s agreement to take the starring role but cajoling her to actually attend rehearsals. Marjorie’s own husband, Maj. Roger Cuthbertson, is a useless sot who spends all his waking hours waiting for it to be late enough to have a drink. The director’s closest ally turns out to be the Colonel, the owner of Pond Cottage, whom she dragoons into building a sled that can bear the arriving queen in royal splendor. Joan, halfway smitten with the old gentleman, agrees for his sake to be more compliant. Even the Colonel’s neighbor and best friend, Naomi Grimshaw, helps out, supplying a wooden pallet that, appropriately sawed and painted, becomes a vehicle worthy of an ex-model. But as Marjorie enjoys her artistic triumph, disaster strikes at the reception in stately Frog End Manor, where an assortment of mince pies turns tragic for the villagers.
Mayhew’s good-natured tale of rural village friendships will delight fans of the English countryside while proving a trial to anyone in want of a good puzzle.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8580-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Proceed at your own risk.
Pioneering pathologist Kay Scarpetta (Trace, 2004, etc.) goes up against a wraithlike killer whose self-appointed mission is to “relieve others of their suffering.”
Practice, practice, practice. If only 16-year-old South Carolina tennis phenom Drew Martin had stuck to the court instead of going off to Rome to party, her tortured corpse wouldn’t be baffling the Italian authorities, headed inexplicably by medico legale Capt. Ottorino Poma, and the International Investigative Response team, which includes both Scarpetta and her lover, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley. But the young woman’s murder and the gruesome forensic riddles it poses are something of a sideshow to the main event: the obligatory maundering of the continuing cast. Wesley still won’t leave Boston for the woman he tepidly insists he loves. Scarpetta’s niece, computer whiz Lucy Farinelli, continues to be jealously protective of her aunt. Scarpetta’s investigator, Pete Marino, is so besotted by the trailer-trash pickup who’s pushing his buttons that he does some terrible things. And Scarpetta herself is threatened by every misfit in the known universe, from a disgruntled mortician to oracular TV shrink Marilyn Self. Cornwell’s trademark forensics have long since been matched by Karin Slaughter and CSI. What’s most distinctive about this venerable franchise is the kitchen-sink plotting; the soap-opera melodrama that prevents any given volume from coming to a satisfying end; and the emphasis on titanic battles between Scarpetta and a series of Antichrists.
Proceed at your own risk.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-15393-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
A run-of-the-mill mystery that includes some welcome tips on the health benefits of chocolate.
An accountant and her lawyer husband must revisit his high school days in order to solve a murder.
Lee Woodyard is no fan of the scheme her husband, Joe, and her uncle, Hogan Jones, the local police chief, hatch to buy the Bailey house next door and flip it. But even though she’d rather be at her job as business manager at her aunt’s chocolate specialty shop (The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha, 2016, etc.), she agrees to meet with the plumber for an estimate—a meeting that turns dangerous when plumber Digger Brown finds a bundle of rags in the cellar. When he drops them, a gun hidden in the bundle goes off, sending a bullet whizzing past Lee. No one seems to know where the old fashioned six-shooter came from, but the accident recalls a past incident in which the Sharks, a group of high school boys that included Brad Davis, Chip Brown, Sharpy Brock, Tad Bailey, and Spud Dirk, pulled a prank that could have been deadly. Years ago, when several Sharks pretended as a joke to rob a convenience store in which Brad was working, Brad pulled a real gun and fired but hit nothing more vital than the Frozen Rainbow Machine. Now Brad’s the president of the VanHorn–Davis Foundation, whose charitable donations underwrite many improvements to the Michigan lakeside town of Warner Pier. When Lee accompanies Hogan to the Bailey house to show him where the gun was, they find more than they bargained for—Spud’s corpse in a cupboard. Although Hogan’s the police chief, he must stay out of the investigation because Spud had been competing with him to buy the Bailey house. So Lee, who’d prefer to stick to chocolates, is forced to join Joe in detective work.
A run-of-the-mill mystery that includes some welcome tips on the health benefits of chocolate.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-10000-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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