As formulaic as its predecessor, this is still a good, lightweight read. And we always knew that Poe and Alana would weather...
Welcome to paradise, and the further adventures of Poe and Foxx and the lovely Alana Hu, where the only thing to spoil the fun is the occasional murder.
In his sequel, mystery writer Stephens (The Drayton Diaries, 2014, etc.) is back with his hero, Edgar Allen “Poe” Rutherford, who has relocated to Maui, probably for good. Poe was lured there originally by his old friend Doug Foxx, and it did not take long before Poe fell in love with Detective Alana Hu of the Lahaina Police Department (though now they have “issues,” alas). Anyway, the gang’s all here, and here comes Alana’s sister, Hani, and her fiance, Panos Laskaris, soon to be married. Panos is a real charmer, but he has made a bunch of enemies, so we’re not really surprised when he is found on his boat on the eve of the wedding with his throat slashed. The suspects are plenty: Peter Bell, whom Panos had cheated out of that boat; Wes, Panos’ partner in a restaurant, whom he had hung out to dry; Hani’s old boyfriend, Makani, and his hot-tempered brother, Kai. Or maybe Jim, the talented chef that Panos had also treated badly. With no credentials whatever—just like the last time—Poe is on the case. Things take an interesting turn when Peter Bell turns up dead. The incompetent and infuriating Detective Adcock is Poe’s nemesis, but our hero is ever the undaunted smart aleck, one step ahead. The case gets solved and wrapped up, of course, not without the requisite red herrings and late revelations. For an amateur detective, Poe isn’t chopped liver. And we get a teaser at the end that there will be more cases coming. Oh, and Poe and Alana seem to be back on track. In this paradise, not only are all the guys hunky and all the gals gorgeous, but Poe and Foxx are both independently wealthy. A sophomoric dream, but such entertainments don’t pretend to be Crime and Punishment.
As formulaic as its predecessor, this is still a good, lightweight read. And we always knew that Poe and Alana would weather their private storm.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1505362909
Page Count: 210
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perfect escapist fare for stay-at-home readers who wonder why nothing ever happens to them.
Another rollicking round of high-speed felonies for mystery author Finlay Donovan and those unwary enough to get pulled into her orbit.
The opening challenge is terse and to the point. “You have seventy-two hours to pay back what you owe,” reads a note stuck under the windshield wiper of a van abandoned by Finn’s friend Javi. But nothing ever follows a straight line in Finn’s life. Since Javi owes $200,000 to loan shark Marco Toscano, Finn and Vero Ramirez, her resourceful nanny, read the note as a ransom demand and set out to find Javi and somehow raise the funds to repay Toscano. Their journey takes them—together with Finn’s two children, her mother, and Steven, her ex-husband (don’t ask)—from Virginia to Atlantic City on a trip that carefully avoids Maryland, where there’s a warrant out against Vero. They don’t find Javi, but the trip isn’t a total loss: They stumble upon two dead bodies in a hotel room, one of them Marco’s. Even though that discovery renders Javi’s debt moot, news of a flash drive containing information about how to access $14 million in cryptocurrency brings Finn up against two of her old antagonists, Russian mobster Feliks Zhirov, who’s escaped from prison just in time to join the festivities, and Ekatarina Rybakov, his star attorney, who in some ways is even more dangerous than him. As usual, Finn compensates for her limitations as a sleuth by her unexcelled ability to improvise, turning the most dangerous situations into set-up lines for droll payoffs.
Perfect escapist fare for stay-at-home readers who wonder why nothing ever happens to them.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781250846006
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A delightful series that casts new light on a beloved poet’s life.
The bitterly cold winter of 1857 kills many people, not all of them casualties of the weather.
Although Emily Dickinson lives in the family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her parents and sister, she prefers to spend her time with second housemaid Willa Noble—who narrates the book—much to her family’s annoyance. As several local groups organize help for less fortunate people, who have little wood or food to get them through the winter, the weather forces Amherst College to cancel classes. But the Dickinsons still host dinner parties, including a welcome reception for new professor Godard Weston and his wife, Verona, whose lovely appearance is very much at odds with her actions. That night a fire consumes the home of an Irish family adjacent to the college, and all the inhabitants are presumed dead until Emily’s dog, Carlo, finds a young girl in the woods. When Mr. Dickinson refuses to take in Norah Rose Doolan, she goes to the home of Emily’s brother, Austin, and his wife, Susan. Emily fears that if no family can be found for her, Norah Rose—who relates most closely to Willa because of their shared experience of impoverished childhoods—will be sent to an orphanage. The discovery that large rocks were placed in front of the doors to the Doolan home to keep them from opening during the fire marks the family’s deaths as murder. Carrying Willa in her wake, Emily is determined to investigate and will not be deterred. Even though she’s an atheist, Emily shows more Christian charity than most as she and Willa uncover the secrets that lead to a killer.
A delightful series that casts new light on a beloved poet’s life.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593816462
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
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