Starred Review
A Corpse in the Castle
After over a decade, Jordan (Set Sail for Murder) has resurrected his delightfully comedic amateur sleuth, Polly Pepper, for her fifth cozy mystery. Polly, a raunchier Jessica Fletcher mixed with a more tart-tongued Carol Burnett, won awards decades ago for her variety TV series. This new outing finds Polly inheriting a castle in Abbots Clover, England. With dreams of turning it into a lucrative tourist trap, Polly, Tim, and Tiara travel abroad to inspect the place. When the castle's disagreeable housekeeper is discovered dead in the larder, Polly is certain she's been murdered and begins investigating the village's inhabitants — a hunky gardener, a gossip-loving Vicar, and a local author whose Peyton Place-like novel hits a bit too close to home.
VERDICT Filled with bright and sarcastic dialogue and smart plotting, this clever cozy is an excellent reintroduction to Polly Pepper.
Starred Review
Murder and a Missing Manuscript
The seventh Polly Pepper cozy murder mystery offers plenty of fun for Anglophiles and bibliophiles. While rooting around in her castle attic, Polly discovers a 200-year-old unpublished manuscript by Abigail Townsend, an obscure but beloved literary giant who only published one novel before her early and mysterious death. With dreams of making a mint off this literary find, Polly convinces eminent manuscript expert Dr. Jonathan Fieldstone to authenticate it — but before his work is complete, Fieldstone is murdered and the manuscript stolen. This clever new cozy offers fascinating background on the techniques of authenticating antiquities, and extends genres with a welcome hint of supernatural and a dollop of budding romance.
VERDICT A dandy mystery with a surprising, twisty plot, strong characterizations, and a village librarian whose sharp memory and no-nonsense demeanor make her an unexpected but invaluable ally to Polly.
