Claire’s clever solution, however, arrives only after endless shoals of red herrings—including one that requires...
Pink fluff, that gourmet treat concocted of Jell-O and Cool Whip, is the favorite snack of retired Palm Springs decorator Stewart Chaffee, but it’s also an excellent description of theater director Claire Gray’s second dalliance with murder—the murder of Stewart himself. The day after he deposits a mysterious document with Merrit Lloyd, his personal banker, Stewart and his wheelchair are crushed beneath the refrigerator where Bonnie Bahr, his home nurse, had stashed his latest supply of pink fluff. An automated camera at the entrance to Stewart’s gated home in Rancho Mirage has obligingly snapped photographs of every car that visited Stewart that fatal Monday morning, but in the absence of fingerprints at the scene or intimate knowledge of Stewart’s intimates, Palm Springs Detective Larry Knoll aptly remarks, not for the first time (Desert Autumn, 2001): “I’m man enough to admit it—I could use Claire’s help.” Tearing herself away from final rehearsals for that gossipy classic Laura, Claire effortlessly summarizes every suspect’s age, physical appearance, and sexual orientation; gives all her information-rich colleagues in and around Desert Arts College the opportunity to dispense educational discourses on the meaning of a painting’s provenance and the difference between fine and applied arts; and comes up with the sudden brainwave that solves the case.
Claire’s clever solution, however, arrives only after endless shoals of red herrings—including one that requires intervention by publisher/sleuth Mark Manning, visiting from Craft’s other series (Hot Spot, p. 615, etc.)—so fragrant that they can only be marking time until the curtain’s ready to fall.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-30501-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
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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