On the whole, this latest entry in the long-running Akashic Noir series presents tale after tale of people who can’t get out...
The big city has no lock on misery in these 16 portraits of dark doings in the Deep South.
Some people’s expectations are just plain unrealistic. Like Glen, who wants her boyfriend to stop chucking cinder blocks off the overpass in Jamie Paige’s “Boys and Girl Games Like Coupling.” Or Erin, who thinks she can get her ex-husband to round up her self-destructive father for transplant surgery in Robert Busby’s “Anglers of the Keep.” Or Cissy, who hopes her baby’s daddy will stop kidnapping the child in Dominiqua Dickey’s “God’s Gonna Trouble the Water.” Or Betsy, who keeps grudges forever in Chris Offutt’s “Cheap Suitcase and a New Town.” In Mary Miller’s “Uphill,” the unnamed heroine knows her life won’t change but thinks it isn’t really her life anyway. Even sadder may be the folks who do try to change their lives, like William Boyle’s hero in “Most Things Haven’t Worked Out” or the petty drug dealer in Jimmy Cajoleas’s “Lord of Madison County.” There’s the usual crew who suffer for love, like Jada in RaShell R. Smith-Spears’s “Losing her Religion” or the eponymous “Oxford Girl” in Megan Abbott’s grim, predictable tale. There are misfits like mute Hero in Michael Farris Smith’s “Hero” and Yizhak Cohen in Andrew Paul’s “Moonface.” And every now and again, there’s a lucky soul who does manage to triumph over the trouble she gets herself into, like Anna in John M. Floyd’s “Pit Stop.”
On the whole, this latest entry in the long-running Akashic Noir series presents tale after tale of people who can’t get out of their own ways.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61775-472-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Akashic
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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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