Compelling first book by a California journalist (and two-time Emmy winner) who writes about the murder of a friend in their San Fernando Valley community. The story has two pivots and a missing piece. It presents itself as a reluctant exposÇ of the wealthy Jewish temple to which those involved in the murder gave their loyalty. And it has a missing gunman, plus threats and physical attacks against the author (her nose has been broken twice). The pivots are Anita Green, shot fatally in the back of her head by a hit-man motorcyclist as she parked her car at her husband's office; and her husband, Melvin, a rich accountant who stood trial, was convicted on circumstantial evidence, and was given a life sentence without parole. Melvin is clearly a monster, sired by an apparent monster from whom he could find no escape, and when he became the same tyrant and control freak that his still-living father evidently is, there was no sanctuary in which he was safe from himself. So Melvin tried to control every item in his life, starting with the prenuptial contracts with Anita. Their marriage lasted ten years as Melvin ballooned up to 600 pounds and hid behind his obscenely hectoring motor-mouth and his body. At first, Anita was willing to be his slave, but as she grew powerful (as president of her temple), she fell into an affair with the temple's rabbi, a practiced seducer whose escapades were pointedly ignored by his big-money congregation. When Anita made clear that she was divorcing Melvin for the passionate rabbi, and Melvin knew that Anita knew about his fraudulent IRS returns, his sense of control was threatened from two sides and he hired a hit man. Or did he? No other explanation makes sense of the facts, but the hit man—whom Samit has identified to the police—is still out there. Intimate and conscientious reporting, well done.
Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 1-55972-182-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Birch Lane Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
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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