It's time to build up the summer reading stack -- and if you savor a good traditional British mystery with neat clues and a somewhat eccentric sleuth, then the newest from Robert Thorogood should top that heap of books by the hammock. THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB offers 67-year-old widow Judith Potts, who likes to skinny dip in the Thames at night and who hears an outcry and gunshot that signal the death of her riverside neighbor.
Potts is a regular creator of crossword puzzles, so she's good at puzzling out a clue. (She's also fond of a shot of whisky for any reason that comes to mind.) To sort out what's actually taken place next door, though, in her town of Marlow (UK), she recruits a local dog walker who knows a little about everyone who owns a dog in town and a few who don't. When she adds a third to this team, the careful but also very knowledgeable wife of the local clergyman, there's no stopping their investigation. Fortunately, unlike the situation in "cozy" mysteries, none of them need to marry, date, or seduce a police officer to hear them and collaborate -- because DS Malik, the investigating officer, is also female and swamped with three murder cases, and she definitely needs all the help she can call in.
Thorogood has a tidy track record of previous mysteries and is credited with creating the BBC TV show "Death in Paradise" (now running on PBS). He has a gift for the gently absurd, a comfortable pace, and a nice armful of clues and red herrings. Most of all, in THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB, it's the dialogue that adds delight, as with this interchange between DS Malik and Judith Potts. Malik is trying (without success) to shoo Judith off the case, and she begins:
"We don't know Mr. Dunwoody was murdered."
"Are you saying the bullet hole appeared in his forehead as if by magic?"
"Well, no, but we can't rule out that his death was a terrible accident. Or what if he did this to himself?"
"You think he committed suicide?"
"It's a possibility."
"Poppycock!"
DS Malik blinked in surprise. Had the woman in front of her just used the word "poppycock"?
For light entertainment in an updated traditional British mystery, THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB is a great choice. Just released by Poisoned Pen Press in America, a year after its British debut.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
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