Despite the leads’ enjoyable banter and the engaging premise, McMillan (A Singular and Whimsical Problem, 2015, etc.) tries...
Two women form a detective agency and try to solve a murder in 1910 Toronto. Oh my!
Constable Jasper Forth knows he’s getting himself in trouble when he’s talked into showing a friend a murder scene, but when the friend is as persistent as Merinda Herringford, it’s hard to say no. Merinda, who’s always felt she has a bit of Sherlock Holmes in her, is keen to conduct her own inquiry into the murder, and she calls on her Watson, Jem Watts, to assist. Two women trying to solve crimes is a bit much for Toronto in 1910, and there’s an uproar when Merinda cajoles Jem into starting their own detective business. Luckily for the pair, some of the uproar is good. There are a surprising number of female clients who prefer a delicate touch in establishing whose husband has done what and investigating other private affairs. Though there’s precious little money in the agency, Merinda’s delighted with their work, and Jem’s happy enough to go along. Merinda remains fixated on roping Jasper into finding out more about the murder that encouraged her to start the business in the first place; Jem’s more interested in an informal and personal investigation of local writer Ray DeLuca, who hasn’t befriended the women nearly enough for Jem’s liking .
Despite the leads’ enjoyable banter and the engaging premise, McMillan (A Singular and Whimsical Problem, 2015, etc.) tries to shoehorn so many different kinds of material into a single adventure that some of her most promising ideas end up insufficiently or imperfectly realized.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7369-6640-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harvest House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: He’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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