Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thorogood follows up 2021's The Marlow Murder Club with another brisk and breezy cozy featuring 78-year-old Judith Potts, who creates crosswords for national newspapers, and her friends Suzie and Becks. Judith is surprised when Sir Peter Bailey--the head of one of the town's most preeminent families--asks her to attend a garden party at his home the day before his wedding to his live-in nurse. There, the champagne-sipping guests suddenly hear a tremendous crash and, rushing into the house, find Sir Peter crushed beneath a fallen bookcase. As the only key to the room is in the dead man's pocket, the police are quick to assume the death was accidental. Judith does not agree. But how will she and her friends prove that someone had committed murder inside a locked room? With quiet help from a police sergeant and their own wits, the women start parsing clues to home in on the killer. Thorogood's characters are vivid and companionable, the dialogue sparkles with wit, and the plot gives armchair detectives a fighting chance to solve the mystery. This is good, fast-moving fun. Agent: Ginger Clark, Ginger Clark Literary. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Thorogood's sequel to The Marlow Murder Club has crossword-puzzle setter Judith and her friends Suzie and Becks enjoying a quiet summer in their English village. Judith receives a call from wealthy resident Sir Peter Bailey asking her to attend a party at his mansion the day before his wedding. She brings Suzie as her guest, and they run into Becks and her husband. During the party, a loud crash is heard from Sir Peter's study, but when guests rush to the room, they find it locked. When the door is broken open, Judith and her friends see Sir Peter crushed under a large cabinet. The detective inspector sees it as an accidental death, but Judith and her friends are not convinced. Everyone connected to Sir Peter has something to hide: his son and daughter; his ex-wife; his fiancée; even his gardener. Throw in a missing will and the Marlow Murder Club members have a lot of legwork to do. But proving it was murder will take all their ingenuity. VERDICT Thorogood gives the locked-room mystery a fun, modern twist that fleshes out the lives of its quirky protagonists; perfect for fans of Richard Osman's "Thursday Murder Club" series.--Jean King
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Put on your thinking cap. It's time for another round with the brainiest trio of amateur sleuths on either side of the Atlantic. You know someone's in serious danger of dying when he phones you out of the blue the day before his second marriage, asks you to a party that afternoon, and assures you that no one in attendance expects to be murdered. At the party at White Lodge, the unlucky bridegroom, Sir Peter Bailey, quarrels with Tristram, the son he plans to disinherit in favor of his bride, nurse Jenny Page, but doesn't even get to greet most of his guests before he's found dead in his study, crushed under a heavy cabinet. The study door is locked; the only key is in Sir Peter's pocket; and every plausible suspect, from Sir Peter's intended to his two children to Chris Shepherd, the White Lodge gardener who has every reason to hold a grudge against his employer, has a solid alibi. It's all a massive headache to DS Tanika Malik and DI Gareth Hoskins, who snatches the case away from her, and it's all catnip to sharp-witted retiree Judith Potts and her two buddies, vicar's wife Becks Starling and Suzie Harris, a dogsitter who has her own radio program. Starting while the corpse is still cooling on the floor, they venture a series of deductions as keenly observant and remorselessly logical as they are unlikely. Yes, there'll be another murder, but no, whatever it seems, the Marlow Murder Club is never in danger of losing control. As anodyne as a village fair and as fiendishly clever as one of the many crossword clues embedded in the story. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
