Deadly shenanigans on a mad billionaire's private island. How mad? Well, just after he's returned from his latest voyage working a tramp steamer incognito, Alexander Krisos offers his son's friend Jay Chandler, the archeologist who's working on the nearby temple of Poseidon, $100,000 to throw himself into the sea at the cliff path where another guest missed his footing and took a fatal header—and then, when Chandler politely declines, takes the plunge himself. (Later, Chandler, just to prove that he's not much saner than his longtime patron, dives in after all.) It looks like an eventful week, even before the guests arrive for Krisos's annual summer bash: His discarded wife Sophia still lives in a humble cottage nearby; daughter Maria, whom Chandler thinks of virtually as a sister, keeps coming on to him despite his manly refusals; her paralyzed brother Nico throws a drink in his face. With hosts this special, expectations run high, especially after elderly pederast Simon Rye, Krisos's literary consultant, is killed and thrown into a cistern (and that's only the beginning of his corpse's adventures). But soon after the arrival of British actress Pamela Bristol, bullfighting scion Antonio Aguilar, Texas mogul Jack Clyde Black and his wife Poochy, Madonna wannabe Gypsy Marr, deposed African dictator Biki Benematale, SS protÇgÇ JÅrgen Leuger, and the rest of the high- profile guests, you realize it's more of the same: endless sinister portents, punctuated only by excerpts from the dossiers Krisos's security chief has compiled on the guests, and the occasional gory fatality. Under this kind of pressure, the guests, who are obviously meant to be fascinating monsters, turn poignantly helpless, as if they were doomed to wait forever at the station for a plot that never quite arrived. Long before the finale—a tingly updating of Theseus' adventures in the Minotaur's cave—these caricatures, who would have been perfectly adequate one of Faust's potboilers, collapse of mythic inflation. Memo to the author (Fugitive Moon, 1995, etc.): Stick to overplotted actioners.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-85535-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
