Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992). St. Martin’s, 201 pages, $17.95 hardcover ISBN 0‑312‑08153‑7 When we first meet Agatha Raisin, she’s 53 years old and about to retire from her public relations job in London to a cottage in the Cotswolds: “The Cotswolds in the Midlands are surely one of the few man‑made […]
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Death of a Gossip (1985) Warner Books, 179 pages, $6.50 paperback ISBN 0‑446‑60713‑4 Every week during salmon-fishing season a new class arrives at the fishing school in Lochdubh run by John and Heather Cartwright. But town constable Hamish Macbeth has a bad feeling about this particular class…. Macbeth is the lone police officer in Lochdubh,
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M.C. Beaton is a pseudonym of Marion Chesney, who is known primarily for the more than 100 historical romance novels she has published under her own name and under several pseudonyms: Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward. But M.C. Beaton is the pseudonym she reserves for her mystery novels. Marion Chesney was
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Sandford, John. Certain Prey (1999) G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 339 pages, $24.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14496 X In his latest Lucas Davenport thriller John Sandford does something different: he focuses on the villain as much as on the hero. And what a villain it is: Clara Rinker, the best hit woman (or hit
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Woods, Stuart. Orchid Beach (1998)HarperCollins, 325 pages, $25.00 hardcover ISBN 0-06-019181-3 Finally, a new book by Stuart Woods that doesn’t feature philandering superhero Stone Barrington. In fact, the protagonist of Woods’s latest novel is a woman, 37-year-old Holly Barker. After 20 years in the army, Barker retires when a male superior whom she and another
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Stark, Richard. The Hunter (1962); rpt. as Point Blank Allison & Busby, 154 pages, $13.95 hardcover ISBN 0 85031 591 3 {Richard Stark is a pseudonym Donald E. Westlake used for a series of stark noir thrillers featuring the character Parker.} As Parker walks across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan at the
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O’Connell, Carol. Shell Game (1999)G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 374 pages, $24.95 hardcover ISBN 0 399 14495-1 After a break for Judas Child, Carol O’Connell returns to her series character, NYPD detective Kathleen Mallory, in Shell Game. When an elderly magician dies horribly in what appears to be a botched magic act, only Mallory suspects murder.
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Cross, Amanda. The James Joyce Murder (1967) Ballantine Books, 197 pages, $5.99 paperback ISBN 0-345-34686-6 Spending the summer at a house in the Berkshires editing letters between James Joyce and his publisher promises to be a peaceful refuge from the city for Kate Fansler. Caring for her young nephew Leo is only a
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Westlake, Donald E. Trust Me on This (1988) Mysterious Press, 292 pages, $5.50 paperback ISBN 0 445 40807 3 This send-up of tabloid journalism is the precursor to Baby, Would I Lie?. Young reporter Sara Joslyn has just lost her job when the small New England newspaper she worked for was bought out,
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Westlake, Donald E. The Hot Rock (1970) Simon and Schuster, 249 pages, $5.95 hardcover ISBN 671 20541 2 The Hot Rock introduces John Archibald Dortmunder, the criminal you can’t help but like. According to William L. DeAndrea in Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, Westlake’s “most successful comic novels, the Dortmunder series, grew directly from the grim
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