Another treat in an excellent series that balances detection with personal relationships.
Another suspicious death increases the pressure on Dr. Ruth Galloway’s relationship with DCI Harry Nelson, which has never been resolved despite the daughter they share and the murders they’ve solved together.
Ruth is happy to get away from the University of North Norfolk, where she’s a respected archaeologist whose department has just been cut as insufficiently profitable. An expert in old bones, she’s worked cases with Nelson for years, sharing their daughter, Kate, while he’s still married and has three children with Michelle, who’s currently living in another city. Nelson wants Ruth and Kate to live with him, but after years of seeing him choose Michelle and their children first, she’s understandably reluctant. Now a builder has called Ruth to check out a skeleton found behind a wall in an old shop; she identifies the bones as being fairly modern because there’s a metal pin in the ankle. The bones turn out to be those of Emily Pickering, a Cambridge archaeology student who was last seen on a field trip with Prof. Leo Ballard, several other students, and a druid called Cathbad in 2002. Cathbad, who’s been Ruth’s friend for years, readily admits to knowing Emily and Ballard, whom Emily’s parents accused of masterminding her disappearance. Then Cathbad vanishes, deepening the mystery of Emily’s murder. Cathbad is partner to Judy, Nelson’s best officer, who must recuse herself. Frantic with worry, Judy relies for support on Ruth, whose own life is in a shambles as she considers her future with teaching and with Nelson. She’ll find herself in real danger before the crime and her problems are solved.
Another treat in an excellent series that balances detection with personal relationships.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780358726487
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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