No sooner has old Edna Ellett, of Oliver, Ind., died of the flu than her relatives gather to squabble over her estate, from the big- ticket items like the house she shared with cousin Kitty Graf to the quilt she left unfinished. Violist Joan Spencer, who knew Edna from her volunteer work at the local senior center, watches from afar as Edna's overbearing daughter, Mary Sue, dutifully described as good- hearted by innocent acquaintances, tries to outmaneuver her smarmy brother, Leon, and her long-suffering sister, Alice, for a line on their mother's vanished will. As Mary Sue is marshaling the forces for the Alcorn County Quilt Show, however, she's unceremoniously killed, and Joan, whose orchestra has been engaged to play for the show, suddenly finds herself thrown together again with her infuriatingly inconstant beau, Lt. Fred Lundquist, to find the killer and the still- missing will. As if the Elletts weren't enough of a handful—Leon even wants to date Joan—she also has to deal with the thief who's been stealing computer chips from campus computers, and the thief (the same one?) who's made off with her daughter Rebecca's bravely individual entry in the quilt show. Despite some nifty last-minute twists that enliven a moribund plot, the substitution of quilting for the musical background of Murder in C Major (1986) is likely to discourage more readers than it attracts. And such indiscriminate traffic in felonies only reminds you that too many quilters spoil the cloth.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11472-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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