Universalist minister Kendrick (Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes, not reviewed) has scant opportunity to...
Given the resourcefulness of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, it was only a matter of time before Holmes, whose posthumous career has paired him with figures from Sigmund Freud to Jack the Ripper, met Father Brown. After an entertaining but detachable prologue in which Holmes neatly solves the disappearance of a storied ruby from his old Oxford college, he returns to Baker Street on Christmas 1902 to an urgent summons from Inspector Lestrade. Inspired by the example of the 1893 Chicago Exposition, the Archbishop of Canterbury has arranged a secret meeting of some of the world’s leading clergymen—Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist—in St. Thomas’s Church, Kensington, in preparation for a possible World’s Parliament of Religions. Now that the mutilated body of St. Thomas rector Rev. Paul Appel, has been found in the church, all the illustrious guests have become suspects in his murder. Suavely overriding the visitors’ protestations that they never could have had anything to do with such an outrage, Holmes—with strategic assistance from Father Brown, on hand as a translator for the Vatican representative—methodically unveils their deceptions in the course of a wild Christmas night as he wades through a further series of murderous assaults to unmask a clever, sacrilegious plot.
Universalist minister Kendrick (Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes, not reviewed) has scant opportunity to bring his eminent suspects to life, but he shows an intriguingly complex Holmes, rough edges softened by a healthy respect for religion, but still active enough for the requisite heroics.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-40367-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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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