After several months away from this blog, I’m back with six reviews in January and hope to be blogging more in February.
Four Star Reviews: 2
I bought the 2024 Agatha Christie Poirot Calendar and have decided to read the book pictured for each month. Dumb Witness was the pick for January, and it was a fun read. There’s a cute dog, it’s got the always hilarious duo of Poirot and Hastings, and unlike many other Poirot mysteries- Poirot isn’t even sure if there’s been a murder.
I liked the slow burn of Dumb Witness, the organic nature of the investigation and the ending totally caught me off guard! Read the full review here.
The Mystery at Dark Cedars introduced me to Mary Louise Gay, a girl detective who will stop at nothing to clear her new friend Elsie’s name after a large sum of money is stolen from her Aunt, Miss Mattie Grant.
Mary Louise Gay has more grit than Nancy Drew has in her pinky finger. She sneaks into a suspect’s car, punches a guy in the mouth, thwarts a kidnapper, and follows the clues even when everyone else doubts her conclusion.
The Mystery at Dark Cedars is a good romp, and I look forward to her continuing adventures. Read the full review here.
Three Star Reviews: 1
Friends and family gather at Considine Manor for a week of cricket. After a pleasant evening of playing bridge, music, and light gambling, one of the guests is murdered in the middle of the night in the Billiard Room. He has a Venetian dagger sticking out of him but was killed by strangulation with his own boot-lace. That same night, Lady Considin’e’s heirloom necklace was stolen. Amateur sleuth Anthony Bathurst teams up with his old pal, Bill Cunningham, to solve the spate of crimes at Considine Hall.
The Billiard-Room Mystery was a fun introduction to the long-running series and its titular character, Anthony Bathurst. The clueing and tone were somewhat uneven, but it was a pleasant read. Read the full review here.
Two Star Reviews: 2
Meet Clementine and Margery, two “dinner ladies” who, after the death of their friend and kitchen manager, Caroline, in their own kitchen freezer, take it upon themselves to investigate her death.
I had high hopes for this cozy mystery but found Clementine, one of the main characters, overbearing and unlikable. The Dinner Lady Detectives is fraught with hijinks and slapstick that didn’t land well with me. I was also irritated at how bad Margery and Clementine were at identifying essential clues. The Dinner Lady Detectives was a big disappointment. Read the full review here.
Nancy Drew’s fourth outing, The Mystery at Lilac Inn, suffers from too many plots competing for top billing. Nancy is helping her friend recover stolen diamonds and investigating strange happenings at her friend’s Lilac Inn. Nancy also has to clear her name because someone has burgled her house, stolen her charge card, and is impersonating her in River Heights. Did I mention there’s also something fishy down at the river, which leads to a skin-diving subplot that leads to bombings and kidnappings by a secret gang who want revenge on Nancy’s father? Got all that?
The Mystery at Lilac Inn has a fraught racist history that led to a complete rewrite. However, the re-written The Mystery at Lilac Inn has too many stories, and the ending is so bombastic and over the top that it loses sight of the natural charm of a girl solving crimes in her small town. Read the full review here.
One Star Reviews: 1
It’s 1910 and Pignon Scorbion has moved to Haxford as the new police chief. His tenure begins with solving whether a young man claiming to be the heir to one of Haxford’s most prominent families is who he says he is. Through careful timeline work and beautifully written flashbacks, the reader learns Pignon Scorbion’s bread and butter: meticulous attention to detail and timelines.
After solving the identity of the mystery man, Pignon Scorbion must solve a spate of senseless crimes: a missing American tomahawk, the kidnapping of a prize-winning pig, and the brutal killing of a farmer.
Despite the interesting nature of the crimes and the beautifully written flashback scenes Pignon Scorbion & The Barbershop Detectives was my first almost DNF of the year. I had high hopes for this Hercule Poirot-esque police chief but found him too persnickety, too exacting, and not very compelling.
My main issue with the book is how overwritten it is. Stilted wooden dialogue, laborious scene settings, and overawed characters are the most basic deductions proffered by Pignon Scorpion. You can read the review here.
A pretty mixed bag this month with no five-star reviews. Dumb Witness is my favorite read of January, but it’s not even one of Agatha Christie’s best mysteries. I’m hoping to find some real standouts in February. What were you reading in January? Comment your favorite books of the month below!
Golden Age of Detective Fiction 
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