Tag: book-reviews
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Miss Marple Returns in Lucy Foley’s Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel
The guests at a hotel in the Alps are temporarily cut off from the rest of the world; murder and mayhem ensue. Sound familiar? It’s the plot of an Agatha Christie short story, “The Erymanthian Boar” (from the mythology-themed The Labour of Hercules), in which Poirot finds himself stranded with a motley crew of fellow…
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Antonia Fraser’s Quiet as a Nun
Lady Antonia Fraser turned 94 yesterday, and she has lived an extraordinary life. Her Jemima Shore mysteries are but a small part of her prodigious literary output, which also includes several volumes of poetry and a set of excellent biographies, perhaps most famously her 1969 Mary Queen of Scots, which made a deep impression on…
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P.D. James’s A Certain Justice and Gail Bowen’s Verdict in Blood
P.D. James’s A Certain Justice, her tenth novel, appeared in 1997; Canadian writer Gail Bowen’s sixth novel, Verdict in Blood, came out in 1998. They’re among the best novels by each author, and both deal with women and the practice of law in exceptionally thoughtful ways. Venetia Aldridge, the barrister and murder victim in A…
