Readers who recognize early on that the most suspenseful question here is whether the heroine will regain her lost love will...
Laurie Moran, intrepid executive producer of the true-crime series Under Suspicion, agrees to reopen a cold case so recent that it’s hardly fair to call it cold.
In the three years since Virginia Wakeling celebrated a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she served as a trustee and a generous donor, by taking a header off the museum’s roof, no one involved has changed their minds about who was responsible. Every single member of Ginny’s family is convinced she was murdered by Ivan Gray, a bodybuilder 20 years her junior who they’re convinced was less interested in her than in the fortune she inherited from her developer husband. Ivan has never stopped protesting his innocence, and now he’s convinced Under Suspicion host Ryan Nichols, whom he’s been training at the successful Manhattan gym into which Ginny pumped $500,000, to reopen a case NYPD Detective Johnny Hon is hardly ready to call closed. Much as she dislikes getting rushed into a story, especially by a host who’s clearly made up his own mind about Ivan’s innocence, Laurie (The Sleeping Beauty Killer, 2016, etc.) agrees that it’s a perfect story for Under Suspicion and promptly sets about harassing the family. At least that’s how Ginny’s children, Carter and Anna, who run the family business; Anna’s husband, commercial real estate lawyer Peter Browning; and Ginny’s nephew, long-marginalized Tom Wakeling, would describe it. Instead of a courtroom, Clark and Burke once more provide taping sessions during which Laurie, Ryan, and assistant producer Jerry Klein get to cross-examine the Wakelings in the hope that one of them will confess on camera (which doesn’t happen) or get angry enough to take a swing at Ryan (which does). But it’s hard for Laurie to put her heart into a case to which every party acts guilty, especially when that heart is still yearning for Ryan’s predecessor in the host’s seat, Alex Buckley, who was last spotted headed toward a federal judgeship.
Readers who recognize early on that the most suspenseful question here is whether the heroine will regain her lost love will know perfectly well whether this latest installment is for them.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5011-7164-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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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