More fun than a plateful of haggis: a delightful read.
In 1889, Lord Joel Ardglass escapes from Edinburgh’s lunatic asylum. He is known informally as Lord Bampot, which is Scottish slang for idiot.
He may have committed a murder, so inspectors Adolphus “Nine-Nails” McGray and Ian Frey search for him. There’s a clever plot and no shortage of twists and turns, but the colorful characters are what make this novel such a pleasure. Frey narrates—he's a British CID assisting the Commission for the Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly. McGray is “a scruffy Scotsman who wears ridiculous clothes” and lost the ring finger on his right hand, earning him his nickname. The two don’t always get along—Frey calls McGray “the witchcraft-nonsense expert” and a “filthy…sheep-offal-stuffed…hare-brained Scot!” The detectives chase Ardglass on an eventful train ride and survive poisoning by foxglove. Frey is covered in a foul substance from a witch’s bottle, and a “middle-aged lady with a plumed hat glared at [him] as if faced with a tray of manure.” They encounter horribly contorted poisoning victims and never touch the bottled frog McGray says is “so poisonous ye’d die from touching it with yer fingertip.” Throughout, they try to puzzle out the meaning of “marigold,” written amid a page of scribblings. “The worst thing you can do to yourselves is find it out,” Frey hears. The Scot’s colorful voice pops off the page as he gets the best lines: challenged about his investigation, McGray barks, “Doing my job, ye stinking hag.” About the upper class, “these people only marry commoners to avoid harelip.” He wants to capture Ardglass alive, but it’s a mission fraught with peril. “If ye live through this,” he tells Frey, “ye might have a future writing tacky novels.”
More fun than a plateful of haggis: a delightful read.Pub Date: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68177-345-2
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A budding romance and an age-old motive combine in a heartwarming cozy.
A small-town businesswoman’s sleuthing marks her for death.
Winona Mae Montgomery saved her Granny Smythe’s apple orchard from ruin by building a thriving cider and event business in Blossom Valley, West Virginia. She’s receiving praise, and a hefty check, for throwing together a fabulous wedding reception for Elsie Sawyer and Jack Warren when the party's happy mood turns sour. The bride seems angry, the groom tipsy, and Winnie’s heartbreaking ex-boyfriend Hank Donovan’s interested in making out with a bridesmaid. But these minor glitches pale when the groom is found dead under the truck with "Just Married" on the window after having had words with Hank. Winnie developed a relationship with Sheriff Colton Wise in her last brush with murder (Apple Cider Slaying, 2019). Although he’s willing to listen to her ideas, he warns her off the case, a warning she ignores since Hank is a prime suspect. The best man, Aaron, had the key to the truck, but even after it turns up in the visor, Winnie keeps him on her list of suspects, along with the bride and the bridesmaid, who’s made herself scarce. After Hank’s sister, Gina, begs Winnie for help, they discover a bunch of flirty emails from Sarah Bear Twenty-two, who turns out to be the elusive bridesmaid. When Colton tells Winnie that mud found in her house contains mushrooms, she realizes that it may have been left by Hank, who has an old cabin in the woods, and she enlists her best friend, park ranger Dot, to help her find it. Soon after they find camping gear inside the cabin that Hank probably took from Winnie’s house, someone starts shooting at them, and they must run for their lives. Winnie realizes that she must find out a lot more about the bride and groom before she can possibly understand who murdered Jack and is willing to kill again to keep a secret.
A budding romance and an age-old motive combine in a heartwarming cozy.Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2349-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Rabbit-obsessed readers (hands, please? anyone?) will love the dedication to all things bunny. Others may find themselves...
A bunny-loving farmer hopes that her telepathic connection to her pet rabbit can help her solve another murder.
Jules Bridge has dedicated her life to the care of rabbits. Not only does she own and operate Fur Bridge Farm, a venue dedicated to bunnies, but she has a number of rescue rabbits, an onsite vet, rabbit fur spinning classes, and even a few pet rabbits of her own. Sharing her love of the species is Jules’ calling, and it’s all in a day’s work when she celebrates young Adrian Richland’s birthday party with some rabbit show and tell. Jules is so focused on all things rabbit that it’s a shock to the system when the party erupts in human drama. Not only does Jules hear Adrian’s mother, Carina, arguing with guest Evelyn Montgomery, but later in the party, Evelyn is murdered, leaving Carina as the prime suspect. Carina approaches Jules about looking into who offed Evelyn, not only to save her own hide, but also because Jules has dipped her toe into investigating in the past (Left Fur Dead, 2019) and struck up a friendship with Sheriff Jack Carver to boot. Carina doesn’t know that Jules has a furry assistant who’s sure to make her investigation a success. Bun, the black-and-white rabbit who’s Jules’ favorite pet, communicates with her telepathically, and he quickly lets Jules know that he’s eager to help her dig into Evelyn’s murder. The investigation the duo launch into Evelyn’s dealings with a local rabbit show reveal that the dead woman was a mean, nasty person with too many enemies to count. Which candidates finally summoned the gall to end Evelyn’s life?
Rabbit-obsessed readers (hands, please? anyone?) will love the dedication to all things bunny. Others may find themselves out in the cold.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2058-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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