Designed, like the Spenser novels, mostly to show off how tough and smart-mouthed the detective is. On the plus side, you’ll...
A South Florida private eye’s first recorded case involves a client who isn’t a client getting evidence against a cheating husband who isn’t her husband and probably isn’t even cheating.
When she wakes up on the floor of a hotel room next to the corpse of Hector Garcia, the philandering spouse she’d been tailing, PI Beth Bowman naturally phones the police. It’s not only her civic responsibility; it’s the logical next step in her report to her client, Hector’s wife Maria. The only problem is that Detectives Dick Bannon and Major Sargent (yup, that’s right) don’t believe a word she says. And no wonder, since Garcia was shot to death with Beth’s own gun; all the evidence that Maria Garcia ever hired her has vanished from her handbag; and the dead man is actually one Benjamin Jacobs. It’s a setup, of course, and one that’s entrapped both Beth and her quarry. Since nothing that follows in this sunlit mystery turns out to be very mysterious, it’s not giving too much away to say that the motive for the Jacobs killing is a stash of jewels hijacked from a crime boss who calls himself Mr. T., and that Beth, backed up by ardent neurologist Dr. David Rasmussen and an unexpected army of homeless helpers, is fully equal to the task of outwitting the bad guys.
Designed, like the Spenser novels, mostly to show off how tough and smart-mouthed the detective is. On the plus side, you’ll learn a dandy way to extract information from unwilling informants without leaving any marks—and without spending more than a few dollars to purchase an item commonly available from any stationery store.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3413-2
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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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