A tough heroine who refuses to quit uses her own troubled background to crack the case.
A private investigator from Louisville, Kentucky, reluctantly takes a job that may be the death of her.
Annie Gore has hocked her watch again to pay her bills, so when a young man wants help finding his long-vanished sister, she’s glad to take on the job. Max Andrews has long been saving up for Annie’s retainer, and although her resume mentions Air Force service, college degrees, and private security, when he meets her, she’s not what he imagined. Max comes from a small North Carolina mountain town; Annie’s own experiences with a battered mother in a similar town make her well aware of small-town secrets and grudges. Max’s sister, Molly, was one of three girls abducted years ago. In each case, an applehead doll was left at the scene. When Jessica Hoyle, the child of a poor family, vanished, her case aroused little interest. A second girl, Olivia Jacobs, was returned two weeks after being kidnapped, perhaps because she’s autistic. Once Molly was taken, an all-out hunt was launched, and the FBI got involved, but neither she nor Jessica was ever found. Annie doesn’t get a warm greeting in Quartz Creek, and poking around doesn’t increase her popularity. The sheriff, who’s Olivia’s uncle, is hostile, but his deputy is willing to help. One of the first people Annie meets is Susan McKinney, who makes potions and reads cards. Some of the townsfolk think she took the girls because she was moved by the tale of a witch who traded apples to the starving mother of two girls and then turned them into birds. Eventually, Annie turns up so many suspects that she’s almost killed in a meth lab fire and narrowly escapes serious injury from a shooter.
A tough heroine who refuses to quit uses her own troubled background to crack the case.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781250338686
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
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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