Although the latest in Hall’s long string of amusing mysteries (The Purloined Puzzle, 2018, etc.) features only a single...
The Puzzle Lady goes to Hollywood.
Cora Felton, famous for creating crossword puzzles, is actually hopeless at them. Her success as her niece’s frontwoman and her genuine abilities as a wisecracking sleuth are about to be tested by a former husband’s tell-all book, which reveals her checkered past. Melvin Crabtree has sold the movie rights to his book, but Cora and her lawyer, Becky Baldwin, have negotiated a contract that allows her some control over her portrayal. Upon her arrival at the New York City shoot, the director gives Cora a crossword puzzle that she ignores, since she’s much more interested in the casting call to select the two actresses who’ll play the present-day Cora and the Cora once married to Melvin. The first day of auditions is capped by a midnight phone call from NYPD homicide cop Sgt. Crowley, with whom Cora’s been briefly involved, telling her that someone’s been murdered at the theater. Cora recognizes the victim as production assistant Karen Hart. Her boyfriend is also found dead, a possible suicide, but when Cora learns he has tickets for Hamilton she becomes convinced it's murder, because, after all, no one would kill himself before seeing the show. Cora’s not happy with the casting of her present-day self, but she’s thrilled with the casting of talented star Angela Broadbent as the younger Cora. True, the actor cast as Melvin is awful, but he’s found hanging in his trailer just before he can be fired—another murder made to look like suicide. Apart from some weather-related problems, everything runs more smoothly once a much better actor is cast as Melvin, until the director’s almost smashed by a falling light. Cora learns a great deal about which staffers are sleeping with whom in order to get better jobs, but the motive for the murders eludes her until she remembers the crossword puzzle she ignored.
Although the latest in Hall’s long string of amusing mysteries (The Purloined Puzzle, 2018, etc.) features only a single crossword, there’s still plenty to be puzzled about.Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64313-059-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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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