An entertaining whodunit with a captivating amateur sleuth.
Music and murder lead a 35-year-old doctoral aspirant through a midlife crisis in this mystery series opener.
Larkin Day has left Los Angeles, broke and discouraged, and taken up “temporary” residence in her mother’s guest room in Pratincola, Iowa, a small town outside Cedar Rapids. Floundering in her attempt to finish her dissertation on Chekhov, and unable to secure a job in her chosen field of theater—or any position that will pay her bills—she is taking a break to reevaluate her life. Her mom, Dr. Josephine Day, a college dean, thinks she has found just the right thing to combat Larkin’s ennui. Josephine has arranged with choral director Ed Jackson to add Larkin to the local chorus for an upcoming presentation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony performed by singers and musicians from the Cedar Rapids to Iowa City corridor (the “Corridorchestra”). Less than impressed with this parental suggestion, Larkin nonetheless finds herself attending that evening’s rehearsal. A week later, at the first rehearsal of the entire “megachoir,” piano accompanist Harrison Tucker does not return after the 10-minute recess. As the rehearsal drones on with alto Anni Morgan filling in for the pianist, Larkin leaves early—and discovers Harrison’s crumpled body lying just outside the stage door. And now Dieker’s novel begins to kick into high gear. Beethoven’s Ninth is the ever present musical backdrop to the mystery and is the focus of an engaging—albeit overly detailed—tutorial on the subtle intricacies of the composer’s lengthiest piece, which builds meticulously to its famous “Ode to Joy” conclusion. Larkin, who trained as a theatrical director, views everything through that unique perspective. Despite her millennial angst, she is an amusing and edgy observer of body language as well as the minutiae of rehearsal procedures (“Ben the baritone was the first to sing, Beethoven’s familiar melody filling the auditorium as the megachoir echoed his claim that Freud should get funky, or whatever Freude, schöner Götterfunken meant”). Together with Anni, an intriguing, socially awkward counterbalance to her own more combative nature, Larkin begins to investigate Harrison’s death, convinced he was murdered. Well-scripted dialogue, engaging banter, and a diverse cast keep the light mystery moving at a good clip.
An entertaining whodunit with a captivating amateur sleuth.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73369-195-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Shortwave Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.
A news presenter and a police detective are brought together by murders in the British village where they both grew up.
There is precious little that can be revealed about the plot of Feeney’s third novel without spoilers, as the author has woven surprises and plot twists and suspicious linkages into nearly every one of her brief, first-person chapters, written in three alternating narrative voices. “Hers” is Anna Andrews, a wannabe anchor on a BBC news program whose lucky break comes when the body of one of her school friends is found brutally murdered in their hometown, a woodsy little spot called Blackdown. “His” is DCI Jack Harper, head of the Major Crime Team in Blackdown, where major crimes were rather few until now. The third is unnamed but clearly the killer’s. Happily, none of the three is an unreliable narrator—good thing because plenty of people are sick of that—but none is exactly 100% forthcoming either. Which only makes sense, because you can't have reveals without secrets. In a small town like Blackdown, everybody knows everybody, so it’s not too surprising that Anna and Jack have a tragic past or that each has connections to all the victims and suspects while not being totally free from suspicion themselves. Who is that sneaky third narrator? On the way to figuring that out, expect high school mean girls, teen lesbian action, mutilated corpses, nasty things happening to kittens, and—as seems de rigueur in British thrillers—plenty of drinking and wisecracks, sometimes in tandem. “Sadly, my sister has the same taste in wine as she does in men; too cheap, too young, and headache-inducing.”
Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26608-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy.
Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” This track record grows in numerous compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family's lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death. Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River. The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold. As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780385546874
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
