Book Recommendation – Queen of Poisons

This book has been out for a while, but I was just now finding it as an audio book. It is the third installment of the Marlow Murder Club stories. – The Queen of Poisons.

The Marlow Murder Club reminds me a lot of the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. It’s a group of friends who work together to solve a murder. This one was just as good or better than the previous books. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

The Marlow Murder Club is on the hunt for a killer… Geoffrey Lushington, Mayor of Marlow, dies suddenly during a town council meeting. When traces of aconite―also known as the queen of poisons―are found in his coffee cup, the police realize he was murdered. But who did it? And why?

The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart’s content… which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet…

This one was really well done. Right from the start you begin guessing who did it, and along the way you discover the various secrets of those who also had a reason to. Honestly, it kept me guessing all the way through. I changed who I thought the murder was a few times and was taken by surprise when the killer was revealed.

The fourth in the series is on my list to read, too. It is called Murder on the Marlow Belle. In January of next year the fifth book will hit the shelves. That will be called The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts. I’m already looking forward to them.

If you love a mystery, I think you’ll like this one. It’s a “Golden Girls meets Columbo” kind of feel.

4.75 out of 5 stars!

Book Recommendation: Death Comes to Marlow

You may recall that a couple weeks ago I wrote about the Marlow Murder Club. It is very similar to the Thursday Night Murder Club books. I loved it. You can read about that here:

Book Recommendation: The Marlow Murder Club

I was glad to see that the second book in the series was also available in audiobook form and I checked it out immediately. It did not disappoint, even though I had an idea of how the murder was accomplished without knowing who the murderer was.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

It’s been an enjoyable and murder-free time for Judith, Suzie and Becks – AKA the Marlow Murder Club – since the events of last year. The most exciting thing on the horizon is the upcoming wedding of Marlow grandee, Sir Peter Bailey, to his nurse, Jenny Page. Sir Peter is having a party at his grand mansion on the river Thames the day before the wedding, and Judith and Co. are looking forward to a bit of free champagne.

But during the soiree, there’s a crash from inside the house, and when the Marlow Murder Club rush to investigate, they are shocked to find the groom-to-be crushed to death in his study.

The study was locked from the inside, so the police don’t consider the death suspicious. But Judith disagrees. As far as she’s concerned, Peter was murdered! And it’s up to the Marlow Murder Club to find the killer before he or she strikes again…

For a long time, I tried to steer away from some of the books that featured the same main character(s). Many years ago I read the Ben Kincaid series from William Bernhardt. I enjoyed the first couple, but then I felt like each book after consisted of recaps from the books before. It got old and I stopped reading them.

Lately, however, the series I have read with returning characters have been fantastic. Much like watching Columbo, Perry Mason, or Murder She Wrote, it is a joy to revisit these main characters.

There was a point in the middle of the book where a piece of evidence is presented and I began to realize just how the murder was committed (in a sense). Despite that knowledge, I didn’t know who the killer/killers was/were. It was a satisfying ending and another great mystery.

The third book of this series was just released to bookstores and it is called “The Queen of Poisons.” I will be looking for that one soon!

Book Recommendation: The Marlow Murder Club

One of the things I love about Goodreads is how they will take books that you have read and offer suggestions based on them. You may recall that I have read all of the available books in the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. This book was suggested based on those. I admit there are similarities, but this one was just as good.

This is the first book in the series. It was very well written and there were plenty of twists and turns throughout it. There were likable characters and characters that you like to hate. I was left guessing right up to the end, and there were some surprises that wrapped everything up nicely.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realize they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…

The author, Robert Thorogood, is an English screenwriter. He is best known as the creator of the BBC 1 Murder Mystery Series, Death in Paradise. I was excited to learn that the PBS show Masterpiece is adapting this book into a 4-part miniseries that will air on PBS soon.

It’s no secret that I love a good mystery, and I enjoyed this one a lot!