As quiet, deft, and professional as an effective medical procedure.
Two patients with very different problems give Staffordshire nurse Florence Shaw sleepless nights.
No matter what tests the doctors Florence works with run on retired solicitor’s clerk Christine Clay, they always come back negative. If she’s feeling fit, though, why does she keep calling for more appointments? It might be easier for Florence to ask her patient questions if Christine’s overbearing husband, Richard, didn’t accompany her on every visit, answering most of the questions Florence puts to her. The one time Christine shows up without Richard, she all but accuses Florence of hiding a dire diagnosis from her, and shortly afterward she’s found in her home with her husband, the apparent victim of a suicide pact Richard has conveniently survived. Florence’s suspicions of Richard, already percolating, reach a boiling point when he announces his intention of suing her practice for medical malpractice. Nor can the rest of her caseload offer much relief, because she’s worried about Ryan Wood, a charming petty thief who alternates between repeated visits for antismoking medication and darker doings outside that indicate he’s forging uncomfortably close ties with serious criminals. If only Christine’s daughter, investigative journalist Harriet Clay, and Florence’s new love interest, DC William Summers, would provide some of the information that might help her engage more actively with her patients. Sadly, they both seem intent on pursuing their own agendas, some of them quite antagonistic to her own. Rooting the story deeply in the daily rhythms of her heroine’s professional life, Masters spins out every thread till they all come together.
As quiet, deft, and professional as an effective medical procedure.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781448313099
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
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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