Maybe too much of some very good—that is, very wicked—things.
Chicago looks more dangerous than ever in police detective Annalisa Vega’s second case.
Called to the scene of DS Leo Hammond’s fatal shooting, Annalisa finds not only interior designer Kayla Hammond, his much younger wife; Annalisa’s own ex-husband and current partner, Detective Nick Carelli; and their boss, Commander Lynn Zimmer, but two unwelcome new arrivals, Detectives Frankie Vaughn and Paul Monk, who together with Leo and Detective Tom Osborne worked together as the Fantastic Four, a team that racked up a slew of homicide arrests and made countless enemies along the way. Even after Zimmer claims ownership of the case for Division North, Vaughn and Monk make it clear that they’re not going away, and Annalisa’s left to figure out whether the well-insured Leo was killed by his cheating wife, one of his partners, or an intruder in a frogman suit Kayla insists she saw in the house. The list of suspects swiftly grows to include Moe Bocks, the used-car dealer Leo was convinced strangled Josie Blanchard back in 1988, and David Edwards, who’s been released years after his conviction for killing Bass Lounge waitress Sandra Romero in a botched robbery that came to a hard ending when the Fantastic Four, arriving in response to her 911 call, shot club owner Cecil Barry dead. As Annalisa, who’s not one to back away from confrontations, gets taken off the case and then placed on medical leave when she’s suspected of murder herself, Schaffhausen piles on the complications and then faces the serious challenge of winding up the case, or cases.
Maybe too much of some very good—that is, very wicked—things.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-2502-6463-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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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