The mystery is slight but pleasing, and packing Margery Allingham’s notoriously fey hero, whom advancing age has...
An untimely death summons Albert Campion’s son and daughter-in-law to a boys’ school in the Yorkshire coal-mining village of Denby Ash, where they’re soon followed by their famous father, a relic of golden age detection, and his long-suffering wife.
On his way home from visiting Ada Braithwaite, the cook at the Ash Grange School whose home is being terrorized by a poltergeist, bachelor teacher Bertram Browne is struck and killed by a car that speeds off into the night. Ash Grange headmaster Brigham Armitage reaches out ceremoniously but desperately to his goddaughter, Perdita Browning, not to investigate the death but to replace Browne as producer and director of the school’s ill-advised Christmas theatrical, a performance of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus with heavy cuts, a brass band accompaniment, and a wordless walk-on for Browne’s sister, Hilda, as Helen of Troy. Oh, yes: Armitage also wants Perdita’s husband, Rupert Campion, to stand in for Browne as coach of the rugby team. Ripley (Mr Campion’s Farewell, 2014, etc.) does almost nothing with the colorful teaching staff at Ash Grange, but Rupert’s news about the haunted house, the local witch, and a wave of well-organized robberies sweeping through the area brings his father down just in time to be on hand when Perdita helps rescue Ada’s son Roderick, her Faustus, from a gang of thugs and Rupert is invited to help DCI Dennis Ramsden with his inquiries. Extricating himself from beneath the watchful gaze of his wife, Lady Amanda, Mr Campion promptly sets off making unauthorized inquiries that bring the case to a highly satisfying conclusion.
The mystery is slight but pleasing, and packing Margery Allingham’s notoriously fey hero, whom advancing age has appropriately subdued, off to Yorkshire is an inspired coup, tapping effectively into the class conflicts that power the story.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-07278-8625-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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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