The seventh adventure for Downie’s physician hero (Tabula Rasa, 2014, etc.) masterfully draws out its suspense, painting a...
An idealistic doctor who moves to the big city with his family finds a nest of corruption—and corpses—literally on their doorstep.
Now that it’s C.E. 122 in Imperial Rome, physician Gaius Petreius Ruso is starting a new chapter in his life, moving from Britannia with his wife, Tilla, and their young adopted daughter, Mara. The trip has been arduous, with Metellus, a longtime antagonist of Ruso, popping up in Rome to insult Tilla and Mara. Ruso is set to take over the medical practice of the venerable physician Kleitos, but when they arrive at the older man's home, the door is locked, and when they get inside they find the furniture, including Kleitos’ medical items, missing. On the porch sits a big barrel. Opening it with difficulty, Ruso finds a corpse inside. Nevertheless, he begins seeing patients even as he turns some attention to solving the dual mysteries of the corpse and his predecessor’s disappearance. Helping not one iota is wealthy Accius, Kleitos’ patron, who peppers Ruso with annoying questions and dire reports of local unrest. He finds the locals similarly prickly, and Tilla fares no better in Rome’s rough streets, though a resourceful new servant girl named Narina proves an invaluable ally. The couple’s exploration of this alien city becomes the reader’s tutorial as well. They begin to feel that they are under siege. Could the unexpected death of their landlord, Horatius Balbus, be connected to these other mysteries?
The seventh adventure for Downie’s physician hero (Tabula Rasa, 2014, etc.) masterfully draws out its suspense, painting a vivid portrait of ancient Rome that feels persuasive and authentic.Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62040-958-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.
An Arizona accountant with a penchant for solving murders lands a fishy case.
Sophie "Phee" Kimball might lead a dull life if it weren’t for her mother, Harriet Plunkett, and Harriet’s neurotic Chiweenie, Streetman. As it is, Harriet lives near her daughter in Sun City West and has a wide circle of zany friends who’ve helped Phee solve several mysteries (Molded 4 Murder, 2019, etc.) while she’s been working for Williams Investigations along with her boyfriend, Marshall, a former police officer. While Phee’s visiting Harriet one day, Streetman dashes over to the neighbors’ barbecue grill and unearths a dead body under a tarp. As usual, the overwhelmed local police ask Williams Investigations to help—er, consult. Harriet’s main concern is getting costumes made for the reluctant Streetman, whom she’s entered in a series of contests starting with Halloween and progressing through Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, and St. Patrick’s Day. One of her friends is an accomplished seamstress who goes all out making gorgeous costumes that will beat an obnoxious lady who looks down on mutts. The dead man is identified as Cameron Tully, a seafood distributor, who was poisoned by the locally ubiquitous sago pine. At the first dog contest, Elaine Meschow has to be rushed to the hospital after she gets a dose of the same thing. The owner of a gourmet dog food company, Elaine is lucky enough to recover. After Streetman takes second place, Harriet’s team redoubles its efforts for the next contest while Phee and Marshall, who are moving into a new place together, continue to hunt for clues. A restaurant holdup and a scheme to use empty houses for hookups for high school kids add to the confusion.
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2455-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
A high-country Presumed Innocent that moves like greased lightning. First of a welcome new series, though it’s hard to...
Rookie Twelve Sleep County Game Warden Joe Pickett’s not much of a shot, and he’s been looking like a goat ever since poacher Ote Keeley got the drop on him with his own gun during a routine arrest. But at least he’s doing better than Ote, who’s turned up dead on the woodpile outside Joe’s house. Joe’s search in Crazy Woman Creek canyon for the two outfitters and guides Ote was most recently partnered with ends happily, though violently, and suddenly Joe is the man of the hour. Longtime County Sheriff Bud Barnum nervously asks Joe’s assurance that he’s not going to support neighboring game warden Wacey Hedeman’s challenge in the upcoming election; trophy wife Aimee Kensinger, who really likes men in uniforms, invites Joe’s family to housesit her palatial digs for three weeks; and wily Vern Dunnegan, Joe’s predecessor, wants Joe to join him in pulling down big bucks from InterWest resources, the fat-cat corporation for whose gas pipeline Vern’s lining up local support. All this good news is only a front, of course, for a monstrous assault on Joe’s livelihood, his integrity, and his family—and incidentally on an inoffensive species long assumed extinct. In response, Joe promises one of the bad guys that “things are going to get real western,” and that’s exactly what happens in the satisfyingly action-filled climax.
A high-country Presumed Innocent that moves like greased lightning. First of a welcome new series, though it’s hard to imagine tourism-marketing exec Box topping his debut.Pub Date: July 9, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14748-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
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