The story hopscotches among so many potential centers of interest—from Lindsey’s blind mother to police detective Jake...
Skeletons popping out of 40-year-old Dallas closets create havoc for four old school friends in Goldman’s heartfelt but unconvincing debut.
Back in Gaston Junior High in the years before JFK’s assassination forever stained the city’s name, the alphabetical seating chart in their classroom made Lindsey Wilson and Annie Williams best friends. They shared tastes, dreams, confidences and even a boyfriend. Now Lindsey, unhappily married to Sen. James “Buddy” Mitchell, is dead after a drug-aided fall that wasn’t suspicious enough to be investigated—or was covered up by one of her husband’s influential friends. David Matthews, the former Gaston bad boy who cleaned up his act and became a criminal-defense attorney, has come into possession of Annie’s journal, which is full of earth-shattering revelations: forbidden romance, abortion, secret childbirth. Nor is the journal the only thing that’s floated to the surface. So has Annie, who’s continued to be close to David even though she’s never met his wife Taylor. And bad-girl Roberta “Butter” Duplissey, another Gaston alum who resurfaces just long enough to get shot to death. And Annie’s old friend Frances Zacchoias, a Greek restaurateur who knows more than he’s telling about malfeasance past and present. Goldman’s model seems to be Jackie Collins, but her vintage secrets are so predictable and decorous that the result is more like an updated Peyton Place shorn of absorbing characters (even David, whose wife hopefully calls him “a very complex man,” doesn’t seem to be up to much), genuine mystery or even any detailed evocation of a specific milieu—all of these goodies are repeatedly invoked rather than created.
The story hopscotches among so many potential centers of interest—from Lindsey’s blind mother to police detective Jake Malone to a pair of grave robbers-for-hire—that it has no time to bring any of them to life.Pub Date: June 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-765-30934-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2007
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
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
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