An effortlessly atmospheric idyll that has a lot to teach contemporary cozies.
Murder eventually strikes a quiet Lancashire farm village in this slow-burning whodunit originally published in 1953.
Everyone in Lunesdale, it seems, covets Aikengill, the home Yorkshire accountant Gilbert Woolfall inherited from his uncle Thomas but has scant time to visit. On one of those infrequent visits, neighboring farmer Christopher Fell’s daughter, Betty, is cheeky enough to come out and ask if she and her suitor Jock Shearling might occupy two of its rooms in Gilbert’s absence after they’re wed. Lambsrigg Hall owner Daniel Herdwick, Jock’s employer and Thomas Woolfall’s longtime grazing tenant, wants to buy the acreage for his herd. The Rev. Simon Tupper, rector of the local church, thinks Gilbert should donate a substantial part of his inheritance to the Ewedale-with-High Gimmerdale church. Thomas’ housekeeper, Mrs. Ramsden, can’t quite bring herself to leave the house even though there’s no one in residence to take care of anymore. Her ambivalence turns out to be a serious misfortune, since Mrs. Ramsden is on the premises when someone sets Aikengill ablaze one night, destroying half the lovingly restored house and suffocating its faithful servant. The local police waste no time in roping Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, a CID investigator on vacation from Scotland Yard, into the case. It’s Macdonald who’ll uncover the surprisingly complicated links between the fatal fire and a series of thefts of sheep and other valuables and identify a killer likely to take most readers by surprise since most of the villagers seem absolutely incapable of even the mildest criminal infractions.
An effortlessly atmospheric idyll that has a lot to teach contemporary cozies.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728278537
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.
A routine break-in at the home of Sûreté homicide chief Armand Gamache leads slowly but surely to the revelation of a potentially calamitous threat to all Québec.
At first it seems as if nothing at all triggered the burglar alarm at Gamache’s home in Three Pines; it was literally a false alarm. It’s not till he receives a package containing his summer jacket that Gamache realizes someone really did get into his house, choosing to steal exactly this one item and return it with a cryptic note referring to “some malady…water” and “Angelica stems.” Having already refused to meet with Jeanne Caron, chief of staff to Marcus Lauzon, a powerful politician who’s already taken vengeance on Gamache and his family for not expunging his child’s criminal record, Gamache now agrees to meet with Charles Langlois, a marine biologist with ties to Caron who confesses to a leading role in stealing Gamache’s jacket. Their meeting ends inconclusively for Gamache, who’s convinced that Langlois is hiding something weighty, and all too conclusively for Langlois, who’s killed by a hit-and-run driver as he leaves. The news that Langlois had been investigating a water supply near the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups sends Gamache scurrying off to the abbey, where the plot steadily thickens until he’s led to ask how “an old recipe for Chartreuse” can possibly be connected to “a terrorist plot to poison Québec’s drinking water.” That’s a great question, and answering it will take the second half of this story, which spins ever more intricate connections among leading players that become deeply unsettling.
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250328137
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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