The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

 

410 pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

Bookclub

 

Blurb

 

Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants

A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.

Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.

The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest

There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.

Who holds the key?

 

Review

WOW!!!

There are well-plotted mysteries and then there is The Paris Apartment. To say I am impressed would be a gross understatement.

There is very little I can tell you about the story. Jess leaves her shitty job in England in a hurry and travels to Paris to stay with her brother Ben. From the moment she arrives at the address he’s given her, things seem off. For starters, how could her brother possibly be able to afford a place in such a luxurious building? That question is quickly pushed to the back of Jess’s mind when her brother doesn’t appear to be there to let her in. He doesn’t answer his phone either and isn’t reading her text messages. With nowhere else to go and very little money to her name, Jess has no choice but to find her way into the building and Ben’s apartment.

There is no sign of Ben in the apartment either, but worryingly, Jess does find his wallet. Jess stays because she has nowhere else to go and because she wants to find out what has happened to her brother.

Her search centres on the other people living in the building and the more Jess learns, the more she discovers that nothing is as it seems.

And that’s when a breathtakingly intense mystery slowly unfolds. There are layers upon layers of secrets to be revealed, unexpected connections to be made, and shocking discoveries a plenty. Lucy Foley achieved something remarkable here. This story works on every level and is masterfully plotted. In my arrogance, I thought at one point that I had it figured out. I was wrong. Very wrong. What happened in this story was more intricate and intelligent than what I had come up with.

This book is a page-turner and a half. It layers twist upon twist and then adds a few extra twists just when you think surely all has been revealed. The story pulls you in and the more you read, the deeper it sinks its claws into you. This was, without a doubt, the best book I have read so far this year. It’s going to take something very special to push it off that top spot.

Encore in Death by JD Robb

In Death #56

403 pages

Isis Large Print / Library

 

Blurb

 

The Sunday Times bestselling series is back. Eve Dallas is investigating the murder of a much-loved actor at a glittering party. The spotlight has never been brighter. Or deadlier...

It was a glittering event full of A-listers, hosted by Eliza Lane and Brant Fitzhugh, the most glittering of all celebrity couples. Everyone had expected the party to be in the newspapers the next day but not because one of the hosts was murdered! As the crowd had gathered to watch Eliza sing, Fitzhugh had raised a final toast to his glamorous wife and fallen to the floor. Death by cyanide poisoning. It's time for Lt. Eve Dallas to make her entrance.

From all accounts, Fitzhugh wasn't the kind of star who made enemies. Eliza, on the other hand, had many rivals, and a few of them could class as enemies. Since the champagne cocktail that killed Brant was originally intended for Eliza, could it be that she was the real target?

With so many people at the party, Eve has her work cut out determining who could commit murder in the middle of a crowd. As one who's not fond of the spotlight, she dreads the media circus surrounding a case like this. All she wants is to figure out who's truly innocent, and who's only acting that way...

 

Review

 

Reading a new In Death story is like coming home, like wrapping myself in a soft warm blanket and sinking into its comfort. Sure, I first came to these stories for the mysteries, and I still thoroughly enjoy the clever plots, the imaginative crimes and motives, and the riveting conclusions. But the characters—Eve, Roarke, Peabody, McNab, etc—and the interactions between them appeal to me at least as much as those crimes and investigations. Eve questioning common sayings never fails to amuse me just as I always have to concede she actually has a point. We do say a lot of weird things without ever questioning them (unless our name is Eve Dallas 😊).

And, as always, Robb delivered. The crime was imaginative and the investigation riveting. The cast of secondary characters was colourful and fascinating. If I missed anything in this story, it was an update on the house Peabody and McNab are renovating seen through Eve’s eyes. I also wouldn’t have minded Mavis and Leonardo making an appearance in this story. But apart from that, I just lost myself in this tale. The pages almost turned themselves and I found it next to impossible to put the book down. 56 books in, I’m still not getting bored with this series and I have a hard time imagining I ever will. In fact, the only other thing I want to add here is: is it September yet?

 

***Contains minor spoilers***

 

I called this one from the very start and I think my recent deep dive into mystery and Agatha Christie specifically may have a lot to do with that. In fact, almost immediately this story reminded me of a Miss Marple story I read not too long ago, and that impression was constantly confirmed since this story is full to the brim with what I would call Christie tropes: ‘Always look at the partner’, ‘never trust actors’ and ‘never underestimate the help’ go a long way to solving the puzzle here.

This is not a criticism of JD Robb by the way. There are more than enough original plot points in Encore in Death to make it its own story. It just made me smile when I spotted the similarities between a book by the undisputed Queen of Crime and the equally undisputed Queen of Romance Writers.

Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

Joseph Spector #1

256 pages

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Paperback / Own

 

Blurb

 

1936. London. A celebrity psychiatrist is discovered dead in his locked study. There seems to be no way a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, Inspector Flint, the Scotland Yard detective on the case, calls on retired stage magician turned part-time sleuth Joseph Spector.

Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colourful cast of suspects, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets—or motives for murder. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realize the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon.

 

Review

 

This book was a wonderful surprise (thank you, Tara). I do love me a solid, impossible-seeming mystery, especially when it comes with a plausible and understandable solution. Tom Mead delivered on all counts.

The best way to describe this story is as a locked room mystery inspired by the Golden Age of Crime Fiction. Except that we have three locked rooms and three different but possibly connected mysteries—the two murders described in the blurb and one apparently impossible theft.

I loved that there aren’t so many characters in this story that I got confused about who was who and how they related to the crimes. The list of suspects is even shorter, which worked on two fronts: it allows the reader to work the mysteries out for themselves (I completely failed on that front) and it makes the mysteries even more intriguing than they already were because of the locked rooms aspects.

If I did miss anything in this story it was more information about how Joseph Spector became a sort of assistant of Inspector Flint. I assume this part of their story may have been told in previously published short stories, but since I haven’t read those and am unsure if I can get my hands on them now, those details may remain a mystery. I can’t say it bothered me while reading Death and the Conjuror, but now that I’ve finished the story, I find myself curious.

Mentions of Christie, her 11-day disappearing act, and the Detection Club made me smile. Combined with the 1936 setting, it placed this book right in that Golden Age of Mystery time frame, which is exactly where it belongs as far as I’m concerned.

I could go on. The intriguing story is well-written and reads smoothly. The characters are fascinating and well-presented. And, most importantly given the genre, the mystery is very well plotted and the denouement very satisfactory. This book is listed as Joseph Spector #1 and the release of Joseph Spector #2 can’t come soon enough for me. 

Sepulchre Street by Martin Edwards

Rachel Savernake #4

Publisher: Head of Zeus – an Aries book

448 pages

 

Blurb

How can you solve a murder before it's happened?

'This is my challenge for you,' the woman in white said. 'I want you to solve my murder.'

London, 1930s: Rachel Savernake has been invited to a private view of an art exhibition at a fashionable gallery. The artist, Damaris Gethin, known as 'the Queen of Surrealism', is debuting a show featuring live models pretending to be waxworks of famous killers. Before her welcoming speech, Damaris asks a haunting favour of the amateur sleuth: she wants Rachel to solve her murder. As Damaris takes to a stage set with a guillotine, the lights go out. There is a cry and the blade falls. Damaris has executed herself.

While Rachel questions why Damaris would take her own life - and just what she meant by 'solve my murder' - fellow party guest Jacob Flint is chasing a lead on a glamorous socialite with a sordid background. As their paths merge, this case of false identities, blackmail, and fedora-adorned doppelgängers, will descend upon a grand home on Sepulchre Street, where nothing - and no one - is quite what it seems.

 

Review

“Life without danger isn’t worth living” – Rachel Savernake

The opening of this book couldn’t be more fascinating. Damaris Gethin, surrealist artist and very much alive, asks Rachel to investigate her murder. Although she refuses to part with any more information, Rachel can’t refuse the challenge she’s been set. Things get confusing when Damaris subsequently commits suicide by guillotine, but Rachel is determined to keep her word. Damaris may have killed herself, but somebody drove her to it, and Rachel will find out who and why.

Journalist Jacob Flint would love an interview with the gorgeous Kiki de Villiers. Damaris’s death spoils his chances on that particular night, and things only get more complicated when Kiki vanishes from London, initially to parts unknown.

And thus starts a story that is at least as much thriller as it is puzzle-mystery. I suspect that the author took at least some inspiration from Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence when he created Rachel and Jacob, with Rachel being intellectually superior and Jacob being prone to finding himself in harm’s way. Having said that, while it is clear that Jacob is rather taken with Rachel, there is (at this point) no sign of a romantic relationship.

There is A LOT going on in this story. We have gangsters, murder, prostitution, people smuggling, a mysterious ‘very important person’, and blackmail for starters. And until almost the end of the story, Rachel and Jacob’s investigations appear to be unconnected. Except that of course they aren’t and the way in which it is all pulled together is masterful.

I’m very impressed that despite a large and at first glance unconnected cast of characters, I never lost track of who was who. It takes a great writer to present the various protagonists in such a way that the reader can easily follow what’s happening to whom, even if the whys aren’t disclosed until the very end.

I liked that the book ended with a ‘clue finder’. Apparently, it was commonplace during the Golden Age of Mystery to spell out the various clues contained in the story in an appendix-like chapter. Martin Edwards does the same here and for me it was a case of discovering that I had picked up on about half of them while the other half went completely over my head. I don’t mind. Part of the fun of a mystery for me is the fact that I’ve been outsmarted by the author.

Long review short: this was a fabulous read. What’s not to love about a story in which the mysteries are well plotted, the clues are there for the observant reader, and one of the main characters is as intriguing and mysterious as the cases she investigates.

Once again, I read a series book out of order. This time I can honestly say that it didn’t matter. At no point did I feel as if I was missing vital (or even trivial) information. What’s more, I can also say without a shadow of doubt that I will read the three earlier titles as well as any future Rachel Savernake stories. If only because I’m now VERY curious about Rachel’s personal story and background.

Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple #12

Publisher: Harper Collins

305 pages

Own/Kindle

 

Blurb

 

A letter from beyond the grave

One last request

An unsolvable crime

When Miss Marple receives a letter from the recently deceased millionaire Jason Rafiel, she’s not sure what to make of it.

Knowing her deductive skills, he challenges her to solve a crime. If she does so, she will inherit £20,000.

The only problem is that he has failed to mention who was involved, or where, and when the crime was committed. Jane Marple is intrigued.

Never underestimate Miss Marple

 

Review

I must be honest and admit that I feel a little conflicted about Nemesis. Let’s start with the positives because they are many.

For me, this was one of Christie’s more ingenious plots. I loved how Marple was spoon-fed information, first to make her intrigued and subsequently to keep her nose pointed in the right direction. This setup did make me wonder if Mr. Rafiel had figured all the answers out for himself before he died and needed Miss Marple to set the record straight because he wouldn’t be around to do so. As much as I like that idea, this is probably a me-thing because no such suggestion is made in the story.

The characters in this story were vivid and the plot intrigued me as much as it fascinated Miss Marple. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes a little when Archdeacon Brabazon declares that he just knew Variety and Michael Rafiel had truly loved each other, but as a plot device and a further step towards the ultimate solution it worked charmingly. On the other hand, I adored descriptions like the following:

 

‘…a big man with square shoulders and a clumsy-looking body, looking as though he had been carelessly assembled by an ambitious child out of chunky bricks.’

 

I truly appreciated how Christie portrayed love as a dark force in this story. We are so used to love in books being the answer to problems, the thing that saves characters that it made a nice change to have love used as the driving force behind evil.

As I mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of the All About Agatha podcast. One of the two original podcasters, Catherine Brobeck had this theory about what she called ‘Dark Marple’. What a shame she didn’t live long enough to discuss this book. Not only does Marple’s darkness ‘shine’ in this story but it is also acknowledged by several other characters.

 

‘So gentle—and so ruthless.”’

And

‘The most frightening woman I have ever met.’

Statements by the Assistant Commissioner and the Home Secretary respectively.

What’s more, even Miss Marple herself considers the concept:

“‘D’you know, said Miss Marple to herself, ‘it’s extraordinary, I never thought about it before. I believe, you know, I could be ruthless’”

Finally, on the positive side, I want to give a huge shout-out to Miss Marple’s attitude towards the money she receives as her reward for solving the case. I love that she has no intention of saving it or using it for investments. Given the stage of life she has reached, spending her earnings on enjoying herself is just about perfect. I can’t help wondering what sort of adventures her plans might have brought Marple. Seems the opportunities would have been endless; if only Christie had written those stories.

But… I did have two issues with this story.

Until now I’ve been mostly able to ignore the parts of the story that the All About Agatha podcast calls, ‘stuck in their time’. In this story, I found myself less able to breeze over the descriptions of young girls and women. Somehow the fact that Christie would write so condescendingly about members of her own gender makes the sentiments voiced more painful.

Apparently, by this stage in her career, Christie dictated her books rather than typing them. And at times, it shows. Especially in the chapter where she explains what has happened and how she reached her conclusions, there are numerous repetitions, almost literal repetitions (😊), and it, unfortunately, stood out.

As much as those two things bothered me, they didn’t ‘kill’ my enjoyment and admiration for this story. The plot was very clever and the way the solution was reached was intriguing and surprising but overall plausible.

The above is more a collection of statements than a review, so I’ll end with a summary of my feelings about this story. Despite the dark theme, Nemesis was for me a delightful and intriguing mystery. As always it was an easy read with far more going on than is apparent at first glance. The solution was satisfying, and the final confrontational scene was nothing short of spectacular.

I do love me some Agatha Christie.

 

Grave Expectations by Alice Bell

 

 331 pages

Publisher: Corvus

Release Date: May 4, 2023

Blurb

How do you solve a murder when the ghost of a 17-year-old keeps telling you you’re doing it wrong?

Claire Hendricks is a hapless 30-something true crime fan treading water in the gig economy working as a medium. When she is invited to an old university friend’s country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along. In fact, Sophie rarely leaves Claire’s side, because she’s been haunting her ever since she was murdered at the age of 17.

When the pair arrive at The Cloisters, they find themselves drawn to a tragic and unrecognizable ghost, clearly an unquiet spirit who met an untimely end. Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family – depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage reactionary Alex – Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when.

Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer before the murderer finds them, in this funny, modern, media-literate debut mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation.

 

Review

And now for something a little different. 😊

Yes, this is a mystery, but a rather unconventional one.

For starters, most detectives don’t come with a sidekick in the form of a teenage female ghost named Sophie, but Claire does.

What’s more, for most of the book, to quote Basher, one of the characters: “This isn’t a whodunnit, it’s a whodeadit. And a howdeadit. And a whendeadit.”

Before I confuse you completely, a quick recap of the story. Claire’s life has been strange, to put it mildly, ever since her best friend Sophie disappeared when they were both seventeen. Fifteen-odd years later, the rest of the world still considers Sophie a missing person. Claire knows better. Claire knows Sophie is dead because Sophie’s ghost has attached herself to Claire. Claire can see and communicate with Sophie, but the rest of the world can’t which makes life awkward at times. Turning her misfortune into an advantage, Claire has taken up doing seances for a living and when a former college friend invites her to a family gathering to perform her ‘act’, Claire, always in dire need of money, agrees.

The séance should have been the highlight of a weekend celebrating the matriarch of the family’s birthday but gets overshadowed by the death of the woman, followed by the appearance of a clearly very distraught ghost. When the ghost of her hostess asks Claire to look into the desperate ghost and its reasons for being there, Claire can’t make herself refuse. And thus commences a rather unorthodox investigation.

Obviously, none of the other people present actually believe Claire can see and talk to ghosts. Nobody has any idea who the desperate ghost might be, why they might be there, and what caused their demise. Or so they say.

I won’t go into the investigation and how Claire eventually gets to the solution; you’ll have far more fun reading that for yourself. I will say however that this is a solid mystery, with proper clues, and plausible explanations. What’s more, this story also did a good job illustrating how isolating Claire’s supernatural ability is. As a result, this book was as much about Claire finding courage, determination, and ultimately friends, as it was about solving the mystery/mysteries this story contained.

I can’t help wondering if naming one of the characters Tuppence, is a small nod to Agatha Christie and I find myself hoping it is, although, at first glance, this Tuppence is rather meek and therefore the exact opposite of Christie’s creation. Then again, still waters run deep, and Tuppence may yet surprise us.

All in all, this was an original and wonderful story filled with surprises, vivid characters (both alive and dead), and, most importantly, a well-plotted murder mystery. I hope this is a first in series. I wouldn’t mind spending more time with Claire and Sophie (and maybe one or two other characters) while they solve crimes.

Death in the Dark by Kitty Murphy

Dublin Drag Mysteries #2

297 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Release Date: 11 April 2023

 

Blurb

Abduction. Accusations. And murder on the dance floor. Sparkle McCavity, young drag queen and employee of Miss Merkin, is missing, presumed kidnapped or even worse. Naturally, Merkin turns to reluctant sleuth and friend to the community Fi for help, but clues and suspects are worryingly thin on the ground—and the drag king Stan the Man is proving somewhat distracting. When Merkin’s niece is then found murdered, spiked on a light pole in nightclub TRASH, it becomes clear that Fi’s friends are in danger. Again. With the ever-inept Detective O’Hara becoming convinced that the most likely suspect is Miss Merkin herself, tensions begin to build among the friends. Could one of them really be responsible? After a strangely spooky séance, Fi’s best friend Robyn disappears. Guilt-ridden and distraught, Fi and her friends must double their efforts to save Robyn and Sparkle before it’s too late. Just as long as her increasingly complicated and distracting love life doesn’t get in the way!

 

Review

Before I say anything else, I have a confession to make: I have not (yet) read the first Dublin Drag Mystery. I’ll let you know at the end of this review whether or not I think that affected my enjoyment of this book.

As enticing as the blurb for this book is, I think I prefer the description of Death in the Dark the author used Twitter:

Intriguing or what?

And WOW, does Death in the Dark live up to that promise! There’s a lot to like in this book. Fi is a great and very likeable, yet realistically present, main protagonist. The cast of characters is nothing short of fabulous (as if I could use any other word when talking about drag queens and kings 😊). The interactions between them sound real and are entertaining. In fact, all of them grew so real while I was reading that I want to go out and watch their show…meet them. I loved the friendship they shared, the loyalty between them, and the love they so obviously felt for each other.

The set-up of this story was rather wonderful too. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not crimes had actually been committed, and Fi, our reluctant hero, was anything but eager to start an investigation. For a long time, nobody is sure what if anything, is going on. But the more time goes by, the clearer it becomes that something is very wrong.

Fi’s investigation is anything but straightforward. She really doesn’t have any idea where to begin or what might be going on. She puts herself in dodgy situations and even goes as far as attending a seance. And when she eventually does stumble across answers the situation only becomes more horrific.

I’m not sure I’m doing a very good job indicating how much I enjoyed this book. It seemed to get everything right. The balance between serious and fun, between dark and light, and between mystery and personal story was just about perfect. I wanted to know about the characters as much as I wanted to know what was going on and whodunnit. Which is why I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that I will be reading future titles in the Dublin Drag Mysteries.

And on that note…

I’m afraid I can’t give you a clear-cut answer to the question if I should have read Death in Heels first. In general, it is always a good idea to read a series in order, of course. And I probably would have understood who-was-who in Death in the Dark a little quicker if I had read the prequel. But at no point, while reading this book, did I find myself lost, or scratching my head, or even wanting to kick myself for not taking the time to read the previous installment. One thing I do have to say is that if you think you might want to read both books, you must read them in order. Death in the Dark holds all the spoilers for Death in Heels.