BREAKING THE CIRCLE

A chronically curious Egyptologist helps Scotland Yard catch a serial killer.

A brief opening scene in which Muriel Fazakerly drowns in her bowl of mulligatawny soup sets the tone for this romp, a cross between a Marplesque cozy and a Holmes-ian puzzle. Elsewhere, Margaret Murray is dreading a scheduled meeting with her publisher over her upcoming book, Elementary Egyptian Grammar, while DS Andrew Crawford celebrates a criminal conviction with his boss, Inspector John Kane, before beginning to investigate the murder of Muriel, aka Madame Ankhara, who was a charismatic medium. Retired inspector Edmund Reid lures Margaret with his interest in the case; the ankh in Ankhara works on her like catnip. Murray and Crawford worked together in Four Thousand Days (2022) and have become friends, so he welcomes her involvement in the investigation. The game is barely afoot when the clever killer claims another victim, Evadne Principal, another medium killed via comestibles, in this case almonds laced with cyanide. The rambling plot is kept afloat by detours into Margaret’s Egyptian scholarship and by a huge cast of colorful supporting characters. Trow’s penchant for plummy names—Lucinda Twelvetrees, Henrietta Plinlimmon, Alexander Dunwoody, Flinders Petrie, and many more—infuses the tale with a welcome buoyancy, as does the knowledge that the daring and resourceful Margaret is based on a real person. One more medium is well done (in) on the way to a final solution.

A brisk, waggish whodunit with a veddy British flavor.