Tense, filled with sharp characterizations, and beautifully worked out (especially in its explanations of said characters’...
The Virginia author of such highly praised mainstream fiction as A Walk to the River and Godfires may have another winner in this Deliverance-like tale of a hunting expedition that has lethal consequences, a partial sequel to his very successful 1998 thriller Tidewater Blood.
Mild-mannered Richmond attorney Walter “Raff” Frampton, the narrator, is one of the two unlikeliest members of the grouse-hunting trip to the nearby West Virginia hills organized by Walter’s old friend, army vet and ardent outdoorsman Drake Wingo. The other is Drake’s casual acquaintance Wendell Ripley, unknown to both Frampton and his other old friend, Cliff Dickens, who shoots Ripley (with whom he's been “paired”) to death in what must surely be a grotesque accident. But investigating Sheriff Sawyers uncovers evidence that contradicts Cliff's account of what happened. As a result, Cliff is soon extradited, charged with premeditated murder—and badly in need of Walter Frampton’s services. Walter’s investigations lead him to a Shaker-like commune, The Watchers (of which Ripley was a member), thence into the heart of Richmond’s gay community, the known habitat of Ripley’s son Jeremiah (who may or may not be dead—and, strangely enough, was formerly employed at Drake Wingo’s sporting goods store). Furthermore, Cliff, an artistic type who visibly lacks female company, did raise numerous eyebrows with that notorious exhibit of homoerotic photography (though he doesn't seem to be gay). It’s all fairly hokey, but Hoffman builds his narrative quite skillfully, juxtaposing Walter’s little shocks of discovery with telling emphases on the complex lifelong bonding that complicates the interrelationships of that fateful grouse hunt’s three survivors. And he manages a smashing end, precipitated by a very revealing daytrip to Fort Lauderdale and climaxing with a dramatic recapitulation of the hunt, in which Walter risks his life and gets his (unspoken) answers.
Tense, filled with sharp characterizations, and beautifully worked out (especially in its explanations of said characters’ credibly mixed motives).Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-06-019794-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.
Notch another corpse for Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree (Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, 2019, etc.).
After slowly working its way out of the red, Jake’s sweet shop is now one of the linchpins of the revitalized business district of Eastport, Maine. But she and her partner, Ellie White, are less than thrilled when Henry Hadlyme, star of the food tourism show Eat This! offers to include The Chocolate Moose on his podcast Eating on the Edge! which highlights off-the-beaten-track purveyors of New England fare. Hadlyme seems a little slimy to Jake and Ellie, and his interest in their treats seems less than sincere. But when he calls Jake “missy,” that’s it; the two chocolateers boot him out of their shop. He comes back with a vengeance—or at least, his corpse does. It turns up in the basement of the Moose with a stuffed parrot pinned to its shoulder and a cutlass jabbed through its chest in a gruesome nod to the ongoing Eastport Pirate Festival. Jake would love to present police chief Bob Arnold with a convenient alternative to charging her with Hadlyme’s murder. And there’s no dearth of suspects: A surreptitious trip to the Eat This! production trailer lets Jake know that pretty much everyone involved with the show hated Hadlyme. But finding out exactly who croaked the curmudgeon—and offering the chief some proof—proves to be a challenge to Jake’s and Ellie’s ingenuity, health, and welfare.
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1134-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An expert juggling act that ends with not one but two intercut trials. More, please.
His Clifton Chronicles (This Was a Man, 2017, etc.) complete, the indefatigable Archer launches a new series that follows a well-born police officer from his first assignment to (spoiler alert) his appointment as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police some volumes down the road.
William Warwick may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he’s done everything he can to declare his independence from his father, Sir Julian Warwick QC. When William, fresh out of King’s College with a degree in art history, announces his intention to enroll in Hendon Police College, his father realizes that he’ll have to count on William’s older sister, Grace, to carry on the family’s tradition in Her Majesty’s courts. Instead, guileless William patrols the streets of Lambeth until a chance remark lands him on DCI Bruce Lamont’s Art and Antiques unit under the watchful eye of Cmdr. Jack Hawksby. No fewer than four cases await his attention: the forger who signs first editions with the names of their famous authors; a series of even more accomplished forgeries of old masters paintings; a well-organized series of thefts of artworks by a gang whose leader prefers selling them back to the companies who’ve insured them and often don’t even report the thefts to the police; and a mysterious series of purchases of century-old silver by one Kevin Carter. His investigations take William across the path, and then into the bed, of Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the Fitzmolean gallery, still reeling seven years after a priceless Rembrandt was stolen from its collection, most likely by landowner and self-styled farmer Miles Faulkner. As if to prevent William from getting even a moment’s sleep in between rounds of detection and decorous coupling, Beth unwillingly drags William into a fifth case, a 2-year-old murder whose verdict she has every reason to doubt. One of these cases will bring William up against Grace, whose withering cross-examination of him on the witness stand is a special highlight.
An expert juggling act that ends with not one but two intercut trials. More, please.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-20076-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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