Five months after Laura Reed's husband Jimmy is shot dead by an intruder, and eight days after Laura's whirlwind courtship ends in marriage to physicist/adventurer Ian Turner, the death of a contract killer hundreds of miles away suddenly persuades the Cape Christian, New Jersey, police to arrest Laura for hiring Jimmy dead. The cops, led by snide Det. Ron Leonard, aren't moved by Laura's reputation as a children's book author, or by her kinship to such mommies-in-distress as Karen Newhall in Mother's Day (1994)or by the plethora of alternative suspects hiding sinister secrets. There's everyone from the shaken bridegroom to Laura's possessive mother-in-law, Dolores Reed; Richard Walsh, partner in Jimmy's art gallery; Richard's catty, grasping wife, Candy; Laura's devoted friend Gary Jurik, a local artist; or Gary's mother, Wanda, who held Jimmy responsible for the accident that disabled Gary. Dogging the footsteps of Mary Higgins Clark, MacDonald distributes suspicion with a generous handand durned if she isn't still messing with Laura's mind, and yours, ten pages from the end. MacDonald lacks Clark's intuitively sure sense of just how far to push each subplot, but she and her bogeyman still deliver plenty of genuine, if synthetic, thrills.
Pub Date: Aug. 10, 1995
ISBN: 0-446-51686-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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