Even fans accustomed to Hallinan’s lurid, compassionate view of Bangkok may have to fight back tears.
Hallinan brings the Thailand-based adventures of expatriate travel writer Poke Rafferty (Fools’ River, 2017, etc.) to a close with this ninth installment, which, like so many of the first eight, bears its readers back to a heart-rending past.
Except for not sleeping more than two hours at a stretch, Rafferty’s living his best life as the father of a new baby. The 2-week-old, named both Frank (after Rafferty’s long-estranged father) and Arthit (after his old friend on the Bangkok police), is the subject of conversation everywhere Rafferty goes. Yet the plot seems determined to subordinate the baby and his mother, ex–Patpong dancer Rose, to the other members of his family. Rafferty himself is sucked into the disappearance of Vietnam veteran Bob Campeau, a barfly with whom he’d recently traded words and blows. And the hitherto blank-slate early years of his adopted daughter, Miaow, absorbed by her infatuation with her schoolmate Edward, who’s to play Freddy Eynsford-Hill opposite her Eliza Doolittle in the school production of Pygmalion, turn out to be at the heart of Rafferty’s stalking by Hom, a masseuse-and-more who’s been bullied into the job by a shadowy figure she thinks of as the Sour Man. The connection between Hom and the unsuspecting Rafferty is unfolded in a painfully extended flashback that emerges as the heart of the story and, in some ways, of the series as a whole.
Even fans accustomed to Hallinan’s lurid, compassionate view of Bangkok may have to fight back tears.Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64129-123-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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