An intriguing and engaging crime tale with some levity to lighten the pandemic element.
In this eighth installment of a mystery series, the Chautauqua Institution confronts its first Covid-19 death—or was it murder?
Another summer season brings another mysterious death to the Institution, an educational, artistic, and spiritual retreat in Western New York state. On a bench in Bestor Plaza, Mimi Goldman, a reporter for Chautauqua’s The Dailyand an incorrigible sleuth, and her partner in crime-solving, the spirited 95-year-old Sylvia Pritchard, are savoring an outdoor, socially distanced coffee break. Mimi, the series’ lead protagonist, tells her friend that last week’s running gag in the snarky, satirical publication Buglelists the plagues that have beset the Institution in this 2020 summer of Covid-19. And Mimi and Sylvia are among those targeted by the anonymous Bugle writer: “The plague of hail is Chautauqua’s own geezer gumshoes: Me-Me Goldman and Over-the-Hillvia Pritchard” because they “clamor like a drumbeat of hail for attention.” Mimi mentions her boss disclosed that the anonymous Buglewriter is the wealthy Albert Martin, and a surprised Sylvia responds that he is the Institution member who died of Covid-19. On Saturday, during a Zoom staff meeting, Mimi receives an email from Al’s sister, Shannon, asking for help in investigating his death. It turns out it was a telemed doctor who linked Al’s symptoms to Covid-19, and the two surviving Martin brothers had his body cremated without the benefit of an autopsy. There are plenty of suspects—especially the diverse members of the dysfunctional Martin clan—who may have wanted Al dead. But Mimi’s first task is to figure out how he died. With an enthusiastic Sylvia at the wheel (Mimi doesn’t drive), the two women head out to question the coroner. In this enjoyable novel, Pines uses tightly constructed dialogue, often tinged with light, sarcastic repartee, to establish her captivating characters. The author also presents a rich assortment of potential motives for murder, with money and revenge topping the list. There is a new, gently somber tone to this episode, reflective of the first summer of the pandemic. Concerts, lectures, and even sporting events are conducted remotely, and Pines effectively communicates the humorous, frustrating technical quirks that have become routine over the past year.
An intriguing and engaging crime tale with some levity to lighten the pandemic element.Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-52-501736-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.
An aspiring mystery writer sets out to solve her great-aunt’s murder and inherit an estate.
Twenty-five-year-old Annie Adams has never met her great-aunt Frances, who prefers her small village to busy London. But when a mysterious letter arrives instructing Annie to come to Castle Knoll in Dorset to meet Frances and discuss her role as sole beneficiary of her great-aunt’s estate, Annie can’t resist. Unfortunately, she arrives to find Frances’ worst fears have come true: The elderly woman—who’s been haunted for decades by a fortuneteller’s prediction that this will happen—has been murdered, and her will dictates that she will leave her entire estate to Annie, but only if Annie solves her killing. It’s a cheeky if not exactly believable premise, especially since the local police don’t seem terribly opposed to it. Annie herself is an engaging presence, if a little too blind to the fact that she could be on the killer’s to-do list. Her roll call of suspects is pleasingly long, including but not limited to the local vicar, a one-time paramour of her great-aunt’s; a gardener who grows a lot more than flowers; shady developers and suspicious friends from Frances’ past; and Saxon, Annie’s crafty rival, who inherits the estate himself if he manages to solve the case first. Annie pieces together clues through readings of Frances’ journal, but the story eventually runs aground on the twin rocks of too much explanation and a flimsy climax. Cute dialogue gives way to lengthy exposition, and by the time Frances’ killer is revealed you may well be ready to leave Annie, Dorset, and Castle Knoll behind for the firmer ground of reality. Fans of cozy mysteries are likely to be more forgiving, but if you cast a skeptical eye toward amateur sleuths, this novel won’t change your mind about them.
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593474013
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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