Heley may have found a worthy successor to her sage but aging heroine.
Ellie Quicke’s protegé learns the hard way how to handle Ellie’s demanding daughter.
After living for years under wise and generous Ellie’s roof, Susan is ready for a home of her own. Or at least, half of one. Realizing that their house has become too expensive for Ellie and her husband, Thomas, Susan and her husband, Rafael agree to help remodel the oversized Victorian into two adjoining units and rent one from the older couple. Daunted by the prospect of living through a major remodel, Ellie and Thomas take an extended vacation to visit his daughter in Canada. As soon as their digs are ready, Susan, Rafael, and baby Fifi move in. Before they can unpack, Ellie’s daughter arrives with toddler Jenny in tow. Diana needs a place to stash her daughter, quick. Her husband Evan’s battle with Alzheimer’s has been ended by his murder, and the police have tossed her out of her house. With Grandma unavailable, it looks like Susan will have to do. Oh, and by the way, Jenny’s brother, Evan, needs to be picked up from his preschool by noon. Warmhearted Susan takes these challenges in stride, locating Evan, who’s been removed from school by Lucia, his unreliable Italian nanny. Sam, Ellie’s favorite taxi driver, brings by his teenage daughter to help, and Coralie runs rings around mopey Lucia, who acts as if she needs a nanny herself. Susan gradually learns to tune out Diana’s threats and wheedling, but she realizes that no one she cares for will be safe until she solves Evan’s killing.
Heley may have found a worthy successor to her sage but aging heroine.Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7278-9097-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy.
Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” This track record grows in numerous compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family's lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death. Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River. The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold. As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780385546874
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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