Lightweight but no-nonsense and genuinely brainy, like Anthony Horowitz without all the meta.
The creator of the Death in Paradise series (Murder in the Caribbean, 2018, etc.) crafts a triple-decker puzzle in a Thames-side English village.
When crossword compiler Judith Potts hears a shout and a bang from the yard of neighboring art gallery owner Stefan Dunwoody, she’s convinced he’s been shot. But DS Tanika Malik, of the Maidenhead Police Station, brushes off her report as a likely car backfire. Next morning, when Judith finds her neighbor shot in the head, Malik naturally says his death was probably an accident or suicide. So Judith, struck by the Faith medallion adorning Stefan’s body, decides to investigate on her own—or rather, with the help of Becks Starling, wife of the vicar of All Saints Church, and dogwalker Suzie Harris. Briefly discouraged when the obvious suspect, auction house owner Elliot Howard, with whom Stefan had publicly quarreled, proves to have an ironclad alibi, they redouble their efforts when cabdriver Iqbal Kassam is found shot to death in his home wearing a Hope medallion. Now even Malik is persuaded that the two men have been killed by someone who’s presumably targeting a third victim, and over the objections of her own staff, she deputizes the amateur sleuths to work with her. Since Andy Bishop, the solicitor who seems to have robbed Iqbal of a hefty legacy from the late Ezra Harrington, also produces an alibi for his murder, the four women have their work cut out for them. Are the deaths linked by a common school background, a fondness for rowing, or a Mark Rothko painting Elliot sold to Stefan more than 30 years ago?
Lightweight but no-nonsense and genuinely brainy, like Anthony Horowitz without all the meta.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72825-051-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Demands a careful reading and knowledge of the Victorian lady detective’s history.
A mystery that unwinds in reverse adds new twists to Thomas’ Sherlock Holmes–inspired series.
The new Charlotte Holmes novel continues the tense chess game that the gender-flipped Sherlock is playing with Moriarty and an incarcerated acquaintance turned villain. The events are narrated as a series of flashbacks interspersed with an interrogation in which Charlotte is under suspicion of murder. While her friend Inspector Treadles nervously observes, a senior policeman grills the unflappable detective about her recent movements. Even as she gives him a bland account of why she’s crisscrossed the English Channel in recent weeks, readers get drips of information about what she and her family and friends have been up to, all building to a reveal. Two other seemingly unrelated mystery subplots enter the picture, but it’s evident that new events and characters are connected to familiar ones from the past. With allusions to previous novels in the Lady Sherlock series and hat tips to Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem” and the Guy Ritchie movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the plot can be hard to follow, especially for new readers. The consistently well-drawn characters serve as an anchor, and the occasional glimpse of Charlotte’s love for her family and her lover, Lord Ingram Ashburton, adds a needed touch of warmth to the clever but clinical jigsaw structure of the mystery.
Demands a careful reading and knowledge of the Victorian lady detective’s history.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780593640432
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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