Crime and punishment as the ultimate parlor game, aimed at readers who’ll keep its title front and center.
An invitation to a “treasure hunt” open to thriller writers and lesser mortals confronts Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Macdonald with two baffling deaths.
Though Macdonald doesn’t really want to attend publisher Graham Coombe’s party, he feels certain he’ll look equally foolish if he declines. So he braces himself, goes off to Caroline House, where Coombe lives with his sister, Susan, and accepts a tag identifying him as Izaak Walton The other pseudonymous guests include Ben Jonson, Madame de Sevigné, Thomas Traherne, Samuel Pepys, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney, Anna Seward, Jane Austen, and Mrs. Gaskell. All the players are immersed in various stages of deciphering individually dispensed clues when Caroline House is plunged into darkness. When Susan Coombe finally finds enough candles to provide minimal lighting, they realize that Samuel Pepys has disappeared, and he’s shortly found dead in the telephone room. Although one of the guests reports having seen a gray-haired man lurking in the vicinity, Macdonald, condemned to playing who’s-on-first with suspects who spent the evening flitting from one room to the next, considers himself lucky to figure out how Pepys, who’s actually the mystery writer Andrew Gardien, was killed. A visit the next day to Gardien’s agent, Mardon-Elliott, reveals that he’s been shot dead, the name “Gardien” scrawled on a nearby sheet of paper. This golden age curiosity, previously out of print since shortly after its initial publication in 1937, proceeds from one head-scratching riddle to the next. But alert fans will recognize a late-blooming clue as pivotal and share honors with Macdonald for identifying the culprit.
Crime and punishment as the ultimate parlor game, aimed at readers who’ll keep its title front and center.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72826-118-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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
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