The last few Fethering mysteries (Blood at the Bookies, 2008, etc.) have lacked the usual quota of wit, gleeful satire and...
Fethering neighbors Jude and Carole come to the aid of a publican.
Ted Crisp’s Crown and Anchor is in trouble. A motorcycle gang has taken to vrooming in and out at all hours, disturbing shopkeepers and residents along Fethering’s High Street. Recently served scallops have caused serious food poisoning. The local paper’s headlines announce that the Health Department has ordered the Crown and Anchor closed. And Dan Poke, the comedian Ted engages to inaugurate the pub’s comedy nights, is not only unfunny but insistent on reminding those present about the dodgy scallops. Could things get worse? Well, yes. When a brawl breaks out, Ray, the simple-minded lad Ted lets help out, is stabbed to death, and Ted’s long-separated wife reappears to demand a divorce and major alimony. Perhaps inspired by the Chilean chardonnay they quaff, Jude and Carole decide to set matters right. Soon they’re confronted by another death, a philandering civic-minded do-gooder, and a man with a scarred face and fewer than ten fingers. Not to worry, though. A few more nips of the chardonnay, and Jude and Carole have put Ted and his pub back in business while sparing a kind thought or two for poor Ray.
The last few Fethering mysteries (Blood at the Bookies, 2008, etc.) have lacked the usual quota of wit, gleeful satire and clever if unmemorable plotting. Alas, matters are equally tired at the pub. Even Brett devotees might want to give this installment a miss.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59414-890-3
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Five Star/Gale Cengage
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009
A suspenseful tale of hypocrisy, greed, and cunning finally overcome by social conscience.
A pair of Regency sleuths take on a miscarriage of justice in the past that leads to murders in the present.
Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, despises injustice in every form, and his wife, Hero, is a committed reformer even though her father, Lord Jarvis, is cousin to the Prince Regent and a major power behind the throne (Who Slays the Wicked, 2019, etc.). Shortly after Hero spots a child watching their house, Devlin’s valet, Jules Calhoun, goes out and returns with news that someone he knows has been murdered. Nicholas Hayes, youngest son of the late Earl of Seaforth, was convicted of murder, sent to Australia, and thought to have died. But now he’s returned with Ji, a child he’s brought from China, only to be stabbed to death with a sickle in Pennington’s Tea Gardens. Why would Hayes risk his life to return to England, where he would be hanged if caught? The question plagues Devlin as he reconsiders the evidence that led to the conviction of Hayes. He revisits the scandal that was hushed up back when Hayes was accused of kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy man and shooting to death a married woman on whom he’d reportedly set his eye. The other suspects, all wealthy and well-connected, include Hayes’ cousin Ethan, who’s succeeded to the title since Hayes' two older brothers died before their father, and the Comte de Compans, whose wife he was convicted of killing. The more he learns of Hayes, the more Devlin is convinced he was an innocent man who took the blame for things he never did, including kidnapping Theo Brownbeck’s daughter, Katherine, with whom he was actually eloping and whom Brownbeck immediately married off to Sir Lindsey Forbes, a power in the East India Company. Hayes’ murder is followed by the deaths of several of his enemies. If Hayes were alive, Devlin would suspect him; since he’s not, Devlin and Hero risk their lives following clues no one wants to see uncovered.
A suspenseful tale of hypocrisy, greed, and cunning finally overcome by social conscience.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-399-58568-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
No more meeting-cute for romancer Hoag. Here, couples bond over body bags as the author turns her deft hand to a grisly crime thriller, skillfully constructed if less than completely page- turning. In Night Sins (1995), the first of Hoag's two-part combo, hard-nosed agent Megan O'Malley came to rural Deer Lake, Minnesota, fell in love with hard-nosed police chief Mitch Holt, and together with him tracked down Garrett Wright, the evil genius who kidnapped eight-year-old Josh Kirkwood and then beat up Megan, breaking nearly every bone in her hand—at least twice. This time, hard-nosed prosecutor Ellen North, who left the Twin Cities to get away from big-city violence, wants to rescue Josh and prosecute Wright to the full extent of the law. Complicating her case, though, is, first, handsome southerner Jay Butler Brooks, a millionaire author of true-crime novels whose face has been on the cover of People and whose sexy, smoky drawl insinuates itself under Ellen's tough exterior. (Brooks himself has come to Deer Lake to escape his own personal devils and to cash in on a great story, but he'll stay to be redeemed by Ellen's courage and dedication.) The second complication is young Josh himself, who's returned but is too traumatized to testify. Third is Wright's greasy big-time defense attorney, Tony Costello, who used to be Ellen's lover before he betrayed her. Fourth, no one believes that mild-mannered Professor Wright, an acknowledged community good-guy, could have done such a terrible thing. And, finally, someone keeps littering the icy Minnesota landscape with other bodies, including one of another kidnapped boy. After a lot of gut-wrenching dedication by Ellen, Jay, Megan, and Mitch, there's a bloody if positive resolution and both couples limp off into the sunset. This time out, Hoag abandons some of her outrageous romantic style to investigate more serious moral issues. Worthy, but much less fun.
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-553-09959-0
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
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