Here’s hoping Horton gets the goods on Eames soon so that Rowson can go back to the procedural puzzlers she does so well.
DI Andy Horton (Undercurrent, 2013, etc.) continues to complicate his job at the Portsmouth CID by probing his mother’s long-ago disappearance.
Horton’s ticked off when his boss, DCI Lorraine Bliss, assigns him a missing person case. He figures private investigator Jasper Kenton has just gone off on his own, maybe with a lady friend, maybe with a client’s money, and the only reason Bliss has her frosty knickers in a knot is that she’s BFFs with Kenton’s business partner, Eunice Swallows. Horton’s perfectly plausible theory is scotched when Kenton’s body turns up near the Isle of Wight’s Northwood Abbey on a spot of beach owned by Lord Richard Eames, a political powerhouse who surely had some idea why Jennifer Horton vanished many years ago, leaving 10-year-old Andy behind. Eames admits knowing Jennifer at the London School of Economics but refuses to talk about his connection with the radical student group she may have belonged to. Horton can barely hide his distrust of Eames, who uses his connections to limit the scope of the Kenton investigation. Then Horton puts his job in peril by concealing his own encounter with beachcomber Wyndham Lomas on Eames’ property the day before Kenton’s death. Instead, he focuses on Kenton’s dealings with his clients, especially Thelma Veerman, who hired him to keep tabs on her husband, Brett, an ophthalmic surgeon with quite a female following. Horton also looks into Kenton’s strained relationship with his sister and his peculiar purchase of a boat right before his death. But all roads keep leading back to Eames, the man he most and least wants to investigate.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8411-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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
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
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