Colorful characters, amusing dialogue, but a plot as thin as a tenderfoot's welcome in Montana high country.
If his daughter Maria hadn't fallen for a documentary filmmaker, Gabriel Du Pré might never have earned his five minutes of fame. But unpredictability is something master fiddler, world-class tracker, and unreconstructed wise man of Toussaint, Montana has grown to savor—except maybe this time. Ben Burke's documentary centers on the famed Lewis & Clark expedition, and Du Pré, who finds it difficult to say no to his beloved Maria, signs on at her behest as historical advisor. But it's a trying time for the film company. The local ranchers detest the interlopers, perceiving them as the vanguard of a horde that will ultimately overwhelm their cherished remoteness. ("It's a country for not many people," Du Pré agrees.) And then suddenly violent death strikes and strikes again. To Du Pré, the why of this is obvious, the who only a little less so. And though he sympathizes with the ranchers, he's too much the moralist to tolerate murder, whatever its cause. On a happier note, Du Pré has unearthed Lewis's lost journal from its 200-year old hiding place. Who owns it now? The US Government claims it does. Du Pré thinks his own claim is better. Under the rapt gaze of the nation's media, Du Pré stands the feds on their collective ear, catches the killers, and—over eight outings now (The Stick Game, 2000, etc.)—continues a relentless march to his own drummer.
Colorful characters, amusing dialogue, but a plot as thin as a tenderfoot's welcome in Montana high country.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26253-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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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