Uneven but nevertheless enjoyable.
After a hurricane hits St. Thomas, a returning resident finds storm destruction and a blood-soaked body but not her longed-for lover.
In Goetjen’s second Olivia Benning Mystery, Olivia hopes to rebuild her late mother’s house and resume a romance with local guitarist Colton. She left the island paradise a few months earlier for a photography internship at a prestigious Boston studio. Back on St. Thomas, she assesses the devastation wrought by a Category Five hurricane. Olivia, short on money, now needs a place to stay. She also needs employment, as the gallery job she was hoping for became a nonstarter. The good news: She lands a position as a photographer at the local paper, and she gets a housesitting gig from a wealthy middle-aged man who hits on her at a high-end bar. Now the bad news: Olivia enters the man’s house the next day, and she finds him in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. After video security catches her running from the house, she becomes the prime suspect. The police hunt for her, as do some unsavory types who think she knows more than she does. All the while, feisty Olivia remains committed to asking “half the island” if they’ve seen the elusive Colton, a man she loves in part for his “alluring, warm blue eyes.” Why the pair did not communicate while Olivia was in Boston is as much a mystery to the reader as Colton’s whereabouts. Additional plot points seem unlikely, such as Olivia’s internship in fine art photography qualifying her for a photojournalist job. The book assumes readers have read the series’ previous book and know important backstory that includes Olivia’s mother’s possible murder. The author, however, excels at evoking a sense of place—for example, pristine beaches or seedy motels—as well as mood, like fear and desire.
Uneven but nevertheless enjoyable.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Secret Harbor Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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