Despite its flaws, this mystery’s winsome gumshoe will likely bring readers back for further installments.
An Indian detective looks into an alleged haunting and winds up investigating a murder in Singh’s (The Witch of Senduwar, 2016, etc.) mystery.
The fact that private investigator Bhrigu Mahesh doesn’t believe in ghosts doesn’t stop him from helping Nataraj Bhakti, who’s certain that his late wife, Damayanti, has returned from the beyond. Bhrigu, a former police inspector, is convinced that he and his friend Sutte will either expose a nefarious plot or prove the existence of ghosts once and for all. Bhakti’s been hearing his wife’s shrill cry at night, and her beloved comb keeps turning up unexpectedly. Bhrigu and Sutte stay at Bhakti’s ancestral home, where several of his relatives reside, including name-calling younger brother Chiranjeev and nosy sister-in-law Premkala. They are, of course, also suspects, as their proximity to Bhakti would make it easy for any of them to stage a haunting, whatever their motives. But before Bhrigu can resolve the case, there’s a murder—someone’s apparently been stoned to death. Now all of Bhakti’s relatives are potential killers, as is Bhakti himself. The PI has already amassed a wealth of information, so he offers to share his data with a local police inspector in exchange for crime-scene details. Together, maybe they can find the culprit—and split Bhakti’s proposed “fat prize” of a reward. Singh’s story is a worthy spin on the Sherlock Holmes formula, as intelligent Bhrigu’s manner is akin to the famous sleuth’s, and first-person narrator Sutte acts as his Watson. The characters are well-rounded—even the murderer is portrayed with sympathy—and often illustrated in bold details, as when someone’s “swarthy complexion…absorbed the light like an opaque object.” Unfortunately, grammatical errors and peculiar phrasing hamper the experience, as when characters are “subjugated to the piercing white noise,” someone has “a loose encounter with a ghost,” or a victim is “badgered...to death.” Still, the protagonist and his pal make a great pair, and the book ends with a quick case that shows how expedient Bhrigu’s deductive reasoning can be.
Despite its flaws, this mystery’s winsome gumshoe will likely bring readers back for further installments.Pub Date: March 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4828-8899-7
Page Count: 450
Publisher: PartridgeIndia
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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