Frightful fun with haunted history and a blustery thespian.
Has an overconfident thief met his match in a haunted mansion?
In the early years of the 20th century, grandiloquent actor Jack Fitzglen heads a mediocre theatrical family, abetted by his adoring dresser, Augustus Pocket. When theatrical engagements are meager, Mr. Jack likes to augment the family’s income with some artful thievery, a sideline that fills Gus with trepidation, though not enough to make him refuse to assist his idol. Impersonations are such a key component of Mr. Jack’s heists that they’re almost better described as performances. His latest felonious obsession is a priceless relic called the Talisman Chalice, which carries a curse and is reportedly hidden somewhere in a Northumberland estate called Vallow Hall or in the ominous neighboring Bastle House. Rayne puts this plummy plot on a back burner to take the reader north and lay out complicated inheritance questions swirling around sincere, timorous Maude Vallow, who becomes the hapless heiress to these properties. The discovery of the corpse of a servant thought to have decamped only increases Maude’s anxiety It is in this forbidding atmosphere that the flamboyant Mr. Jack attempts to execute his plan. Rayne’s tale, a half-step away from the simmering suspense of her upscale Phineas Fox series and West/Flint ghost stories, feels delightfully unleashed from their milieu. She depicts hammy antihero Jack with relish, loads the last half of her bubbly, spooky yarn with lively set pieces like a suspicious fire, and ties her chalice to the dark fates of Richard II and Anne Boleyn.
Frightful fun with haunted history and a blustery thespian.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781448306404
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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