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A GRAVE IN THE WOODS

An overstuffed memorial to the days of World War II.

Relax. All the deceased in police chief Bruno Courrèges’ latest case have been dead for a long time. But that doesn’t mean there’s no mystery about them.

Bruno returns from medical leave to his office, which has been commandeered by Colette Cantagnac, his overbearing new executive administrator, just in time to hear that English ex-chef Tim Birch and his wife, Krys, want to purchase a vacant hotel, the Domaine de la Barde, and refit it as a cooking school. It sounds like a win-win for everyone, but there’s one problem: what to do about the neglected grave on the building’s grounds. A quick excavation in the presence of visiting American archaeologist Abigail Howard reveals a dog buried there; a deeper dig discloses three human skeletons—two naked females and one fully clothed male. The women are pretty clearly Luftwaffe officers Anna-Liese Weber and Hannalore Franke, who died in 1944, but it’s not at all clear how the man can really be Italian captain Salvatore Todaro, whose identification papers he carries, since Todaro was killed in 1942 on board the submarine he commanded. By the time this third corpse is properly identified, the brew will include other complications: attempted cyberattacks on Bruno and others, the threat of some once-in-a-lifetime floods, and the difficulties in both establishing the truth of what happened back in 1944 and what the French, Italian, British, and American authorities who are involved can do about it now. The questions Walker raises about the wartime foundations of the comfortable social fabric and rituals Bruno and his friends in St. Denis take for granted are so ambitious that it’s no great surprise that they’re more compelling than their answers.

An overstuffed memorial to the days of World War II.

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024

ISBN: 9780593536629

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024

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THE MAN WHO DIED SEVEN TIMES

A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.

A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.

Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”

A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.

Pub Date: July 29, 2025

ISBN: 9781805335436

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

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THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

From the Thursday Murder Club series , Vol. 1

A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.

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Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.

The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.

A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking

Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020

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