An intriguing, well-paced cozy mystery with a light touch and an enjoyable cast.
In Lynn’s series whodunit, an American archeology student interning at the Roman Baths site in England finds a recent corpse bearing an ominous tattoo.
Nineteen-year-old Maddie McGuire is stuck on a ledge, having slipped off the Cotswold trail she was hiking while reaching for a few tempting blackberries. Standing on the cliff above her is Constable Edward Bailey, a dashing young Scotsman who’s Maddie’s current romantic interest. While Edward runs off to find help, Maddie investigates the foliage on the tiny landing. Then she sees a very strange image: a unicorn’s head with a knife clutched in its jaw, tattooed on the torso of a naked woman’s dead body. In this second volume of Lynn’s Cotswold Crimes series, the resourceful Arizona native once again finds herself involved in a dangerous, twisty murder investigation. As she tries to impress the director at the dig site where she works as an intern, she struggles to decipher the social codes of Britain’s aristocracy; meanwhile, she becomes the target of a conspiracy to have her either deported or disposed of in a more unsavory fashion. Then there’s the problem of Edward, who appears to be devoted to her but has his own secret, questionable past. Lynn packs her carefully crafted mystery with enough surprises and potential suspects to keep the pages turning, and the grimness of the crimes increases with each new discovery. There’s a wealth of archeological and cultural trivia along the way, and plenty of light banter to keep readers amused. Maddie shows herself to be a stalwart protagonist, especially when riding a restless horse or escaping danger through a third-story spa window. Her youth, impetuousness, and occasional naïveté, juxtaposed against the criminal enterprise behind the murder, give Lynn’s narrative a versatility that makes it appropriate for both YA and adult readers. The final revelation of the villain is likely to provide readers with a closing chuckle.
An intriguing, well-paced cozy mystery with a light touch and an enjoyable cast.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Level Best Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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