THE DUNGEON HOUSE

Name: THE DUNGEON HOUSE
Author: Martin Edwards
ISBN: 978-1-4642-0318-3

by Martin Edwards ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 2015

Despite the gap of all those years, Edwards works exceptionally close to his characters. So every complication he piles on...

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In his seventh Lake District mystery (The Frozen Shroud, 2013, etc.), Edwards shows that a troubled local family can rename the Dungeon House as Ravenglass Knoll, but they can’t erase its violent past or prevent a recurrence of the same fatal passions.

Twenty years ago, Malcolm Whiteley, who ran a highly questionable waste management firm, had questions of his own about Lysette, the first love he’d married. So convinced was Malcolm that Lysette was betraying him with someone—maybe Gray Elstone, Malcolm’s accountant; maybe Robbie Dean, the former football player who’d killed his girlfriend, Carrie North, in a careless car accident; maybe Scott Durham, the neighbor who was giving her painting lessons; maybe Nigel Whiteley, the son of Malcolm’s estranged, cancer-stricken brother Ted, a boy reputed to fancy older women—that it was practically certain he’d kill one of them sooner or later. Instead, according to the evidence, he shot Lysette, then chased after their beloved daughter, Amber, and threw her off a cliff, and finally stuck the gun in his own mouth. Finis—until DCI Hannah Scarlett, of Cumbria’s Cold Case Review Team, is asked to look once more into the case at the very moment that Joanna Footit, a former girlfriend of Nigel’s who was seriously traumatized in the same accident that killed Carrie North and crippled Robbie Dean, decides that it would be a perfect time to return to Dungeon House, Malcolm’s home, which Nigel has inherited and christened Ravenglass Knoll, and look up her old friends and neighbors. Let’s just say that Hannah’s labors are crowned with greater success than Joanna’s.

Despite the gap of all those years, Edwards works exceptionally close to his characters. So every complication he piles on so generously comes with a fresh sting, even if many readers will be left more bemused than challenged by this intricate puzzler.

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4642-0318-3

Page Count: 276

Publisher: Poisoned Pen

Review Posted Online: June 29, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015

Categories:

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

- BOOK REVIEW
PLAYING DEAD
edited by Martin Edwards

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HOUSE ON GRAVEYARD LANE
by Martin Edwards

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUZZLE OF BLACKSTONE LODGE
by Martin Edwards

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MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

by Agatha Christie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 1934

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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

Categories:

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

- BOOK REVIEW
MIDSUMMER MYSTERIES
by Agatha Christie

- BOOK REVIEW
A DEADLY AFFAIR
by Agatha Christie

- BOOK REVIEW
CLOSED CASKET
by Sophie Hannah & Agatha Christie

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PROMISE ME

by Harlan Coben ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 2006

As usual, Coben piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises with the unfocused...

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After six years of spinning jaw-dropping stand-alone thrillers, Coben brings back his sports agent—make that everything agent—Myron Bolitar (Darkest Fear, 2000, etc.) for an encore.

Overhearing high-school senior Erin Wilder, his current ladylove’s daughter, sharing confidences with her friend Aimee Biel about getting driven by wasted friends, Myron Bolitar promises both girls that if they ever need a ride, they can call him and he’ll pick them up, no questions asked. All too soon he gets a chance to deliver. Aimee phones him from midtown Manhattan, where he just happens to be staying, and asks him to drive her to suburban New Jersey. Myron obliges but pushes a bit too hard with the questions, and Aimee vanishes into a strange house. The next day she’s still missing, and in jig time the police, armed with Myron’s credit-card slips and EZ-Pass records, come calling. It turns out that Myron’s not a credible suspect. But because everybody connects Aimee’s disappearance to that of fellow student Katie Rochester three months ago, Myron’s on the hook with some serious people, from Aimee’s parents, who beg him to bring her home, to Katie’s mobbed-up dad, who’s too proud to beg but has other ways of getting him to cooperate.

As usual, Coben piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises with the unfocused intensity that have made his thrillers (The Innocent, 2005, etc.) such a hot ticket.