An episodic, felony-strewn stroll down Memory Lane.
Now that he’s retired, DI Henry Christie finally gets a chance to close one of his very first cases.
It’s 1985, and PC Christie is at the point of taking in Thomas Benemy, who's clearly shoplifting perfumes to order on a grand scale even though he’s only 13, when he’s coshed from behind and wakes up to find Tommy and his unidentified accomplice gone. Shortly after Henry pays a call on Trish Benemy, Tommy’s hard-used mother, her son disappears, never to be seen again. The following year, Henry, now a newly minted Detective Constable, is called on the carpet as the likeliest person to have passed a pair of suspects in the abduction and murder of two children the tools they used to end their lives in the nick. It’s not until 2020, when he signs a six-month contract to serve as a Civilian Investigator with the Blackpool CID’s Cold Case Unit, that the threads begin to come together. First Henry gets to hear the scarifying source of the scars that disfigure the body of his sergeant, Debbie Blackstone. Then he learns of the suicide of Trish Benemy, which turns out to be murder. He and Blackstone close in on Ellis Clanfield, a serial rape suspect who has the same unusual tattoo that Henry remembers Tommy sporting, only to see him snatched from custody by sexy solicitor Hortense Thorogood. Incredible as it seems, things rapidly get even worse before all the loose ends (and there are many) are tied up.
An episodic, felony-strewn stroll down Memory Lane.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7278-5014-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Foodies and mystery lovers will come for the red herrings and stay for the cheese.
It starts with a food fight and ends with murder.
Carly Hale’s dream of opening a restaurant specializing in everything grilled cheese has finally come to fruition. When her part-time helper, Grant Robinson, quits his job at Sub-a-Dub-Sub, his irritable ex-boss, Ferris Menard, naturally blames Carly. Both owners have entered the Halloween festival food contest, and tensions run even higher after Menard accuses Carly of trying to ruin his business and somebody paints a skull on her car. The announcement of the winner is held up by the discovery that the ballot box has been stuffed. The next morning Menard is found dead. Though there’s a steak knife in his chest, it turns out that he was dead before he was stabbed. Chief Holloway, who’s familiar with Carly’s sleuthing skills, warns her off, but the framing of her boyfriend, Ari Mitchell, for the murder guarantees that she’ll ignore the chief’s advice. Perhaps unwisely, she hires Menard’s daughter, Holly, who needs a job while the sub shop is closed. Carly learns a lot more about Menard’s background as a lifelong resident, including the high school bullying and the divorce that made him plenty of enemies. One of her best customers is a retired teacher who keeps leaving her unusual poems of encouragement. Could her knowledge solve the case?
Foodies and mystery lovers will come for the red herrings and stay for the cheese.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72823-835-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An interesting puzzle infused with Big Apple attitude.
In trying to revive her failing coffee shop, a woman uncovers murders past and present.
Clare Cosi manages the Village Blend, an iconic Greenwich Village coffee shop, with her former mother-in-law, Madame Blanche Dreyfus Allegro DuBois, the original owner, and her ex-husband, Matteo Allegro, who travels the world in search of specialty coffee beans. A new customer, who says to call him Mr. Scrib, spends hours in the upstairs lounge writing in a notebook until he has a manic episode ending in hospitalization. Bent on enticing more customers, the staff comes up with the idea of reviving the use of the lounge as a writing retreat. The Writer’s Block, as it was once known, was a great success until it became the location of an unsolved murder. One evening while Clare is talking to Madame, noises in the alley draw them out—where they see someone attacking Mr. Scrib, apparently seeking his notebook. A furious Clare chases the miscreant, is hit by an electric scooter, and awakens in the arms of her fiance, NYPD Lieutenant Mike Quinn. A hospital wristband reveals that Mr. Scrib is really Jensen Van Dyne, a member of the original writing group from a period Madame does not like to talk about. Clare, who has a long history of solving murders, is determined to research the people involved, at least one of whom is now a famous author and a friend of Madame’s. To add to her stress, she sees Matt having a secret meeting with their nemesis, Cody Wood, whose national chain sells inferior coffee. Several of the clues she unearths from the past lead her to spend time in the rarified air of New York’s rich and famous seeking a killer.
An interesting puzzle infused with Big Apple attitude.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9780593642283
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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