Lilly Bennett, US marshal, private security doyenne, and arbiter of taste in Roundup, Wyoming, takes a break from the hectically fashionable preparations for her wedding to transplanted New York banker/dreamboat Richard Jerome to drop into a dinner at Alma and Wade Gilhooly’s—and lands in the middle of a proxy battle for the ages. In this corner is Alma, chairman of Rutherford Oil’s executive committee, who’s determined to bet the company on a risky Siberian oil search. On the other side is Alma’s half-sister Mercedes, Rutherford chairman and CEO, who’s convinced the Siberian deal will leave the family company as dead as fossil fuel. And let’s not forget the half-sisters’ dotty Aunt Edith, who wants to scuttle the whole spat by appointing a new Rutherford board packed with worthies like Barbra Streisand and Michael Jordan. It’s not really a fair fight, because somebody caps the dinner by shooting Alma, leaving Lilly (who, moments after announcing that she’s got more money she can ever spend, is enticed into the case by Wade’s offer of doubling her usual fee) to put the alibis of the leading disputants—televangelist Johnny Bourbon, African hunter Kennedy McGee, ex-Montana Senator Duke Fletcher, and of course the merry widower—through a rough-toothed comb in an exhilaratingly messy runup to her nuptials. Lilly’s most endearing trademark, her catty eye for high plains tackiness, fades after the opening chapters, leaving her fourth case (Tramp, 1997, etc.) appealing mostly to fans who really care what her bridesmaids will be wearing.
Pub Date: Dec. 29, 1998
ISBN: 0-385-48860-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
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
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