A merry month of mayhem
Cosy collection of mysteries a delight, writes Pat St. Germain.
Death at the Savoy: A Priscilla Tempest Mystery
As murder mysteries go, this one is an exceptionally lighthearted affair. Set at London's posh Savoy Hotel, where co-author Prudence Emery worked during the swinging '60s, it was inspired by a chapter in her autobiography, Nanaimo Girl. The year is 1968 and, like Prudence, Priscilla Tempest is a young, Canuck working in the Savoy press office. When a guest is found dead in his suite, it's Priscilla's job to keep nosy reporters at bay. It doesn't help that the hotel is basically celebrity central. Priscilla spends a lot of quality time having cocktails with Noel Coward, Richard Burton and Liz Taylor. The prose doesn't exactly sing, but the action hums along, pulling in everyone from KGB spies to members of the royal family.
Never Coming Home Hannah Mary Mckinnon Mira (Harpercollins)
Lucas Forester married his wife Michelle for her money, but murder wasn't part of his plan — at least not in the beginning.
Then he saw how she threw money away and began to worry she'd spend it all before he could get his mitts on it. A suspicious father-inlaw complicated matters, but it was the pandemic that sealed Michelle's fate. As narrator, Lucas explains how he planned Michelle's fake kidnapping and how he fooled the police, Michelle's family and their incredibly helpful neighbours. But when someone starts leaving messages that suggest they're onto him, Lucas loses the plot. As his paranoia grows, he becomes increasingly reckless, and in this game of cat-and-mouse, one player is bound to make a fatal error.
Poison Lilies Katie Tallo Harpercollins Canada
In the sequel to Ottawa writer Katie Tallo's debut novel (Dark August), heroine Augusta Monet is caught up in another cold case — one that plays out over the course of nine months. Newly pregnant, Augusta (Gus) moves into a once-grand apartment building and quickly befriends an elderly neighbour, Poppy Honeywell. Poppy hasn't left the building since 1953, when the young man she planned to marry disappeared. But her wealthy family forces her to leave soon after skeletal human remains surface in a pond across the street. Clearly, her long-lost lover has been found — or has he? The Dickensian plot thickens along with Gus's girth.