West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

 

 

288 pages

Publisher: Raven Books

Publishing Date: October 24, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

'Any respectable practitioner must follow the rules in making the truth - however skilfully camouflaged by lies - accessible to all'

It's the Fourth of July weekend at the prestigious West Heart country club. Gathered for cocktails on the first evening are just some of the guests: the club president, the treasurer and his pregnant wife, the snooping school boy, the bereaved father, the taciturn caretaker, the prospective member, the private detective...

And there will also be a body.

And a fiendish mystery to solve.

But everything else is to play for.

And you are about to find out that you have a role to play in this mystery too..

West Heart Kill is an outrageously original and imaginative murder mystery that is both a love letter to the greats of classic crime fiction and a brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before.

 

Review

When a blurb states that the mystery in the book is ‘a brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before’ it is hard not to see that statement as a challenge. Therefore: challenge accepted. 😊

Brace yourself for a review filled with vagaries. So much of the plot depends on the things that make this story unique and surprising, and I wouldn’t want to ruin those discoveries for others. I do have a few things I want to say about the fascinating, original, surprising, and thought-provoking reading experience I just had, though.

The book starts with the narrator/author comparing West Heart Kill to all other murder mysteries. In fact, the book starts as if it hasn’t started yet, with the narrator describing what is happening, or going to happen, as if this is not the actual story yet but rather a description of what is to come. I’m going to stop relaying how the story is told soon, but I do want to add that the list of ‘dramatis personae’ has some parts of the description of individual characters blacked out. The text implies that the missing information would either tell the reader a lie or reveal too much.

I have to say a bit more about how this story is narrated after all because the second chapter is told from a first-person perspective, the third section shifts to the “we” of the first-person plural, and the book finishes as a play. Interspersed between the sections of murder mystery are apparently random theoretical facts about and opinions on murder mysteries and their authors. Except that nothing in this story turns out to be random. With one possible exception, although I can’t go into that. Which is probably just as well since I haven’t figured out how I feel about that yet.

If all of the above gives the impression that this book is anything but a mystery, allow me to reassure you. The components you’d expect in any whodunnit are all present here. We’ve got a private detective, deaths that need explaining, a locked room, and a closed circle of suspects, to mention a few familiar tropes.

But those are the bare bones. There is so much more going on. As an avid reader of the genre, I knew that everything on the page had to be in some way relevant to the mystery plot. And while a lot of what I read had me stretching my head in the moment, it all made a wonderful sort of sense when I reached the end of the book. If all you want from your mysteries is the traditional set-up of murder, followed by investigation, and denouement, this book may be too much for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy discovering something new and being taken by surprise, you are going to love this story.

All too often the claim that the book a reader is about to start is unlike anything they’ve ever read before turns out to be a disappointing overstatement. Not this time. This time I fully agree with the last line of the blurb. West Heart Kill is indeed an

outrageously original and imaginative murder mystery that is both a love letter to the greats of classic crime fiction and a brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before.

All I know is that if ever a book deserved a re-read, this is it. I’m already anticipating how much fun I will have starting the story again but this time armed with the knowledge I’ll need to figure out exactly how immensely clever this work is. Because I’m sure I haven’t recognised the half of it.

 

 

 

 

 

Supper for Six by Fiona Sherlock

 

295 pages

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Release Date: October 19, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

When Lady Anderson invites five guests to her apartment in Bruton Square, Mayfair, none of the guests know why they have been summoned. And it isn't long before dinner turns DEADLY.

Supper for Six . . . but murder is on the menu

London, 1977: Agapanthus and Francois Langford, Jeremy Crowley, Elizabeth Chalice and Chrissy Crowley have very little in common - except for the fact they have all been summoned at fairly short notice to attend a dinner party hosted by Lady Sybil Anderson, in her rather charming and opulent apartment in Bruton Square, Mayfair.

Except each guests believes they are having a private dinner party with their host - so the other visitors are quite a surprise.

Once the awkward introductions are out of the way, a powercut sends shockwaves through the group - and when the lights come back on, Jeremy is discovered dead.

Elizabeth Chalice - the only private investigator in the group - becomes detective, witness and suspect all at once . . . Is Jeremy's death an accident - or is it the very reason they've all been called here at once?

A murderous Abigail's Party - Fiona Sherlock's Supper for Six is immersive and incredibly entertaining. Join Elizabeth Chalice on her quest to get to the bottom of this rather deadly dinner party . . .

 

Review

To say I’m conflicted about this book would be a gross understatement. I’ll try to explain why that is the case.

But, first things first… What the blurb doesn’t mention is that this case is presented in the form of a podcast, hosted by Felix Caerphilly, an investigative journalist who started looking into the case as a teenager in 1978 but doesn’t make his findings public until the present day.

The podcast format means that the whole set-up is rather high-octane. I get it, with a podcast you need to keep your listeners on edge so that they return for the next episode. While the same is true for chapters in a book—you want to write them in such a way that your reader keeps on turning the pages— the need for cliffhangers is bigger with a podcast, simply because the listeners have no option but to wait for the next episode to be launched.

But…there is such a thing as too much and too fast. A breather, a moment to reflect, every now and again would have been nice. As it was, this story felt chaotic. It went back and forth, repeating itself more than once while also suddenly springing new information on the reader, as if out of nowhere. It had a bit of an ‘everything bar the kitchen sink’ feel to it. One suggested solution seemed to be in the story only to make a (political) point rather than because it had any real relevance to the mystery in question. And finally, I had to suspend my disbelief a bit too far on one or two occasions. For obvious, spoiler related, reasons I can’t actually go into the details of exactly what didn’t feel right to me.

Having said all that, I can’t deny that I read the book in under 24 hours without ever feeling the urge to put it aside because of any of the ‘issues’ I mentioned above. It is definitely a story that keeps you racing through the pages as you try to keep up with the various revelations and possible outcomes. Every single character in this story has secrets they want to keep hidden and reasons to be less than truthful, which raises the stakes and therefore keeps the reader engrossed.

Maybe this is not the book for those who feel strongly about the level of realism they expect to find in their mysteries. However, if you’re in the mood for a fast-paced (turbo-charged) story that will hook you and keep you captivated until the very end, you’ll almost certainly be entertained by this book.

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead

 

Joseph Spector #2

253 pages

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Release Date: October 12, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

Illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector investigates a sinister conundrum at a 1930s theatre in this thrilling new mystery novel from Tom Mead, author of Death and the Conjuror, one of Publishers Weekly's Mysteries of the Year 2022.

1938, London. Young lawyer Edmund Ibbs has a new client: a woman accused of shooting her husband in the already infamous 'Ferris Wheel Murder' case.

The case proves to be a web of conspiracy, and Ibbs himself is accused when a second suspicious death occurs, during a magic act at the crowded Pomegranate Theatre.

Also present at the theatre is Joseph Spector, illusionist turned highly respected sleuth. Spector begins to investigate the mystery, but when another body is discovered later that same night, all evidence points to Ibbs being guilty.

With time against him, and a host of hangers-on all having something to hide, can Spector uncover the guilty party, or will he and Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard conclude that Ibbs is the culprit after all?

 

Review

Earlier this year I read Death and the Conjurer (click for my review) and found myself eagerly anticipating the release of the second mystery featuring Joseph Spector. Well, the wait is over, and I have to say The Murder Wheel more than lived up to my very high expectations.

If you follow my reviews, you may have noticed I love mysteries. And if there is a hierarchy to my appreciation of mysteries, impossible/closed-room murders are at the top of my list. So, imagine my delight when I discovered that The Murder Wheel contains not one, nor two, but three such dilemmas. It is delightful when what appears to be impossible not only turns out to be feasible but also logical and so easy to understand after explanation that I want to slap my forehead for not having figured it out for myself. Better still, during the denouement, the author very kindly indicates what the clues were and where in the story they could (should) have been found.

I’m growing quite fond of the regular characters in these stories. Joseph Spector is a bit of an enigma. A retired stage magician, he now appears to spend most of his time in a pub which he treats more or less like his office. He appears to be an einzelgänger but does have a keen interest in people and there is very little he doesn’t notice and store away for future reference. Of course, making the main character and investigator of this series a retired magician is a stroke of genius. Who could be better equipped to see beyond the sleight of hand and recognise the ways in which the seemingly impossible can be pulled off?

Scotland Yard Inspector George Flint is the official investigator in these books and while it can certainly be said that Joseph Spector out-investigates him, he isn’t your stereotypical blundering yet arrogant policeman, far from it. He’s well aware of his limitations when it comes to these impossible crimes and what’s more, he is really invested in solving the cases which means he not only embraces but also seeks Spector’s assistance. He makes for a refreshing move away from a somewhat tired stereotype in mystery fiction.

This book offered a second refreshing aspect in Edmund Ibbs, a young lawyer and amateur magician. Most of the story is narrated from his perspective which means we get to observe Spector from more than one perspective. What’s more, his presence also means that we don’t get to see Spector as uniquely qualified to solve cases since Ibbs manages to solve at least one of the three cases on his own.

I really can’t praise this book and series enough. Well written, exquisitely plotted, and smoothly told, these Spector mysteries are a joy to read and come with satisfying and plausible—be it (almost) impossible to guess—solutions. Nothing short of spectacular!

I will be awaiting the publication of Joseph Spector #3 with a great deal of impatience and am delighted to discover that Tom Mead is already plotting the fourth instalment. 😊

Murder by Invitation by Verity Bright

 

A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #15

363 pages

Publisher: Bookouture

Release Date: September 27, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

Lady Swift has been cordially invited to a huge royal celebration in Little Buckford to toast the King’s birthday… but wait, is that a body in the village hall?

Lady Eleanor Swift and her loyal butler Clifford are busy lending a hand with preparations for the big day. The grand dining room at Henley Hall is overflowing with home-sewn flags, paint and royal rosettes. Even Gladstone the bulldog and his new friend Tomkins the ginger cat are invited!

But just days before the event Mr Prestwick-Peterson, the chairman of the celebrations committee, is found dead in the village strangled with handmade red, white and royal blue bunting.

With the village hall in total disarray and a key part of the decorations missing, Eleanor wonders if someone dastardly is sabotaging the King’s birthday celebrations? Teaming up with her handsome beau Detective Hugh Seldon to question the local butcher, baker, and pub landlord it becomes clear that the meddlesome busybody Mr Prestwick-Peterson was not universally liked in charming Little Buckford. Indeed, the only mystery is why he wasn’t murdered before…

Searching Mr Prestwick-Peterson’s pristinely organised rooms, Eleanor is surprised to find a faded photograph of a beautiful young woman hidden within the pages of a novel. Could this be the key to untangling this very village murder? And can Eleanor catch the killer before the party is over for her, too?

 

Review

I have to start this review with a disclaimer: I did not read the 14 preceding Lady Eleanor Swift mysteries. Fortunately, I can also state that this did not leave me confused and that it didn’t affect my enjoyment of this story at all.

Quite the opposite in fact. There’s a lot to enjoy in this charming story. The characters and the interactions between them are vivid, interesting, and at times chuckle-worthy. The exchanges between Lady Eleanor and Clifford, her butler, are especially delightful. Just as those between Eleanor and her fiancé Detective Hugh Seldon often made me smile. Overall, I can honestly say there wasn’t a boring or superfluous character in this story, and that includes Gladstone the bulldog and Tomkins, the cat.

The mystery in this book was intriguing and well-plotted. The murder of a man universally disliked is always a great set-up and the fact that every possible suspect had the same, impossible to disprove, alibi, added greatly to the intrigue. When a second murder victim is discovered, the urgency of the investigation increases, especially since it is only days until the festivities to celebrate the King’s birthday are to take place. The solution surprised me, although I realised after I had it all spelled out for me that the clues I needed to figure it out for myself were all there. 😊

The one thing I found less charming was the thriller aspect near the end of the story. I don’t object to it being there, it just felt a bit (too) long in what was otherwise a delightful cozy mystery. Having said that, I can’t say it bothered me enough to put me off Lady Eleanor and I can definitely see myself reading other books in this series in the future.

To summarize: Murder by Invitation is a smoothly written, captivating cozy mystery featuring delightful characters and a well-plotted mystery.

 

 

 

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

447 pages

Publisher: Viper

Book Club Read

Own

 

Blurb

 One Murder.

Fifteen Suspects.

Can You Uncover the Truth?

There is a mystery to solve in the small town of Lockwood. It starts with the arrival of two secretive newcomers, and ends with a tragic death. Roderick Tanner QC has assigned law students Charlotte and Femi to the case. Someone has already been sent to prison for murder, but he suspects they are innocent. And far darker secrets have yet to be revealed…

Through the amateur dramatics society’s disastrous staging of All My Sons and the shady charity appeal for a little girl’s medical treatment, the murderer hit in plain sight. Will Charlotte and Femi solve the case? Will you?

 

Review

 “Arthur Miller constructs a play the way a sculptor creates a three-dimensional image from an amorphous chunk of clay. He shows us a basic shape. Then bends and stretches its contours, turns it for us to view alternate angles, gradually reveals the finer details until, finally, we can see for ourselves what it really is.”

And the same can be said for this story. Nothing is as it appears at first and as the story progresses, deeper and hidden levels are constantly revealed. The big question being how it all ties into the mystery.

It is only thanks to the first two pages, where two young lawyers (?) are tasked to go over the paperwork of a case, that we know we will be dealing with a murder somebody has already be imprisoned for.

The next 2/3s of the book deals with an amateur dramatics group and the real-life drama taking place off stage. Through emails and messages, we get to know the Fairway Players and how they relate to each other. We learn about a young child with cancer and the fundraising efforts to get her an experimental treatment from America. But most of all, we slowly but steadily discover that nobody is exactly how or who they present themselves as. Secrets, past connections, animosity, obsession, fraud, lies, they all float to the surface. Until ultimately, on the premiere of their performance of All My Sons things come to a head. Truths are spoken and accusations made, and they lead to death.

I have to be honest, the cast list in this story is so long that it took me a while before I knew who was who and how they related to each other, and to what was happening. While it was a little frustrating initially, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because keeping track of it all forced me to read slowly and pay attention to all the details. And that, in turn, allowed me to notice the various discrepancies and misdirections I might have missed if I’d read at my normal pace.

The murder is almost an afterthought. In most mysteries, we start with a body after which the investigator tries to figure out the motives and events that led up to and might explain the crime. In The Appeal, we are given all those possible motives and the events that led up to the crime before the murder is committed. You would think that having all that information would make the identity of whodunit obvious. Not for me. I still wasn’t sure who out of an enormous cast of suspects had done the deed.

The murder victim wasn’t who I thought it would be either, although it does make a lot of sense it would be them. The actual murderer was also rather low on my list of suspects, although now that I know, it does make sense that it would be who it is.

The final page and a half were delightfully creepy.

I rarely re-read books, not even mysteries, on purpose, although the occasional title does slip in due to my far-from-perfect memory. However, I can’t help feeling that The Appeal and Hallett’s other titles would greatly benefit from a re-read. While I tried to keep a running list of characters and things that stood out about them and their actions while reading this story, I’m still sure I must have missed a long list of clues. For obvious reasons, I can’t share those notes or the thoughts I had when I wrote them down. The fun (for me) in this mystery is the slow lifting of the veil.

After having read all three of Janice Hallett’s currently available titles I have to conclude that she is something of a genius when it comes to slow reveals and misdirection while still giving the reader all the information they need to keep up with the investigators. Except that the fictional sleuths have so far proven a lot cleverer than I am. Then again, being shocked and surprised by the end of the book is one of the big joys I find in reading mysteries.

I am now caught up with Hallett’s mysteries and eagerly awaiting the release of The Christmas Appeal on October 26^th. The blurb indicates that the story will return us to the Fairway Players and Femi and Charlotte, which should be interesting, to put it mildly. 

Bring. It. On.

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

#25 Hercule Poirot

287 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins

 

Blurb

Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried ‘wee wee wee’ all the way home.

It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind…

 

Review

When I started Five Little Pigs, I was convinced I’d never read it before. As the story progressed, I realised that I probably had, be it a long, very long, time ago. I remembered just about enough to figure most of the solution out before Poirot revealed all in the final chapter. And, as always, it didn’t matter.

This wasn’t the only time Agatha Christie used a nursery rhyme as a title for one of her mysteries and in Five Little Pigs worked very well for this story. The five surviving suspects all fit their designated little pig very well. At the same time, The Things We Do for Love would have been an equally fitting title for this story.

In this book, the same story is basically told (at least) five times and then repeated five more times in written statements. It should be boring but, no doubt due to Agatha Christie’s genius as a storyteller, it is actually fascinating. Especially since there are minor yet revealing differences between what the five narrators relate.

As always, I don’t want to expand on the blurb for this story. Spoilers are always a no-no, but never more so than in a mystery. Suffice it to say that for me this story ranks among the best mysteries Christie ever published. It was a joy to read and I lost myself in this very clever mystery. It won’t be long until I dive into the Christy-verse again.

 

Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare

#2 Canary Club Mysteries

Publisher: HQ

Pages: 416

Release Date: September 14, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

1936, September 17th, 1am…

In the middle of Harlem, in the dead of night, a woman falls from a second storey window. In her hand, she holds a passport and the name written on it is Lena Aldridge…

Nine days earlier…

Lena arrived in Harlem less than two weeks ago, full of hope for her burgeoning romance with Will Goodman, the handsome musician she met on board the Queen Mary. Will has arranged for Lena to stay with friends of his, and this will give her the chance to find out if their relationship is going anywhere. But there is another reason she's in Harlem – to find out what happened in 1908 to make her father flee to London.

As Lena's investigations progress, not only does she realise her father lied to her, but the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And those secrets have put Lena in terrible danger…

 

Review

This book starts almost at the point where Miss Aldridge Regrets ended. For that reason alone, I recommend that you read these books in order. I’m not saying you can’t read this story as a stand-alone, but you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’re familiar with what has happened before. What’s more, events come full circle in Harlem After Midnight.

And while I’m on the subject of how this book starts; I hope you’re ready for a shocker. The first scene of the book features a young woman on a Harlem pavement. She appears to have fallen out of a window and is clutching Lena Aldridge’s passport. What on earth is going on?

Actually, it will take some (reading) time before you discover what happened in that prologue. The timeline of the story moves back nine days, and we join Lena after she has moved in with friends of her lover, Will. Over the next few days, we follow Lena as she tries to find out about her father’s life in New York before he travelled to London. At the same time, she tries to figure out what her future should look like. Does she return to London and her friend Maggie, as she originally planned, or could there be a future for her in America after all…a future with Will?

Slowly, through meeting his family and from stories told by his friends, Lena gets to know Will better and it isn’t long before she realises that Will has a few secrets in his past. Not that she can complain about that. It is not as if she has told him all her secrets either. But, over the nine days, the atmosphere around her goes from friendly and welcoming to fraught and a little hostile, although Lena has no idea why.

Things come to a head on the night of a party with a woman falling from the window of Will’s friends’ apartment and Will being the main suspect.

Since I try to avoid spoilers at all costs, that’s all I’ll say about the mystery. As for the story, it is just as fascinating as the prequel. Except that in this case there is more than one mystery from the start. While most of the story is told from Lena’s perspective and focusses on her stay in New York, other sections are set in 1908 and voiced by her father and one other character who will remain unidentified in this review.

I’m obviously not going to reveal how any of the mysteries in this story are resolved, but I do have thoughts I want to share about those resolutions. For starters, I found the resolution to the mystery of the fallen woman as dubious as the one in Miss Aldridge Regrets. The answer is provided and makes sense but whether or not you’d call it satisfactory depends on your personal opinion. As the word dubious implies, I remain to be convinced. Furthermore, while the reader finds out exactly why Lena’s father left New York for London, it is a little unclear whether or not Lena herself was aware of his ultimate goal. Then again, for her sake, I’m inclined to hope that she didn’t figure it all out.

Having said all of the above, the story did fascinate me. The setting, the characters, and the interactions between them grabbed my attention. The book is very well written, and my reading experience was smooth and enjoyable. While this book may not completely satisfy the mystery purists, I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy a combination of captivating characters, a rich historical setting, and enough intrigue to keep them on their toes.

I wonder if there will be more Lena Aldridge mysteries. While this book could easily be the end of her story, I wouldn’t be sorry if Louise Hare decides to feature her in future books. Reservations or not, Miss Aldridge has gotten under my skin.