An amusing, well-paced mystery—to the extent it can be disentangled from the humdrum romance.
You can never be too thin, so 120-pound South Florida hairdresser Marla Shore (Hair Raiser, 2000) and her even sleeker best friend Tally Riggs sign up for three-month trial memberships at the Perfect Fit Sports Center in hope of dancercizing off the two or three pounds they gained over Christmas. But before she can get close to a StairMaster, Marla’s summoned to the whirlpool by the receptionist’s screams—to find Jolene Myers, corporate executive at Stockhart Industries, drowned at the bottom. Detective Dalton Vail, angling to get closer to Marla, invites her out for coffee, but instead of giving her the inside scoop on the murder, coaxes her into driving his 13-year-old daughter Brianna to ballet while he spends evenings on the investigation. To make matters worse, Marla’s old friend Arnie, owner of Bagel Busters, convinces her to pretend she’s his fiancée to ward off advances from horrible Hortense Crone, who’s had a crush on him since high school. These social entanglements leave Marla precious little time to interview suspects—like animal rights activist Cookie Calcone, who confronted Jolene over Stockhart’s use of animals for product testing, or Eloise Zelman, who resented her husband Sam’s business meetings with Jolene at the Holiday Inn. So what Marla ends up exercising most is her ingenuity, solving the case without either trashing her relationship with Dalton or making commitments she can’t keep.
An amusing, well-paced mystery—to the extent it can be disentangled from the humdrum romance.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-57566-687-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
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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