Thursday, August 13, 2009

Terror on Tuesday by Ann Purser

Title: Terror on Tuesday
Author: Ann Purser
ISBN: 0425197530, Berkley Prime Crime, 2004
Genre: Amateur Sleuth, #2 Lois Meade mystery
Rating: B

First Line: "I used to carry a knife," Lois said conversationally, "when I was at school."

When I read the first book in the series, Murder on Monday, I found it to be lacking a bit in mystery, but I enjoyed the characters so much that I wanted to see where Purser went with them. I also wanted to see if Lois mopped herself into a corner. Having one cleaner constantly stumbling over corpses would be problematic-- just how many people would continue to hire her to clean their houses? I also wondered about Inspector Cowgill insisting on always meeting her in the same place. Lois lives in a small village. No matter how out-of-the-way the meeting place is, sooner or later everyone in the village is going to know what's going on. Purser dealt with both of my questions very well in this second book in the series.

Lois came into a bit of money at the end of Murder on Monday, and she and her family have moved to a different village and instead of a small council house, they now have a much larger one with plenty of room to spread out and still have a place for Lois to set up her own cleaning business. It's not long before she's interviewed applicants and has a crew working for her. One day she decides to take a short break in an old chapel and comes across a body dressed in a suit of armor. Once again, Inspector Cowgill has her searching for clues, and when the murderer almost kills her husband, Lois takes the investigation very seriously indeed.

I like the direction in which this series is going. Purser has an excellent cast of characters to work with, and having Lois run her own cleaning company means that she has more time for investigation and an entire crew of cleaners who can help her search for clues. The mystery didn't flag in this second book; although I guessed quite a bit of what was going on, I still didn't have all the plot threads tied and tidied by book's end.

This is a series that I'll be continuing on with, and I'd suggest it to anyone who prefers good characterization, amateur sleuths and cozy mysteries.

8 comments:

  1. So glad to hear about this one Cathy. I read Monday and thought it was OK but not brilliant and I too thought the series would be a bit daft if it continued like that. I have Tuesday and Wednesday in my TBR pile (I scored them out of order on bookmooch) so now I will look forward to these for those times I want a cosy.

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  2. Glad to see you are a mystery lover too! I found a good one at the library and have to read the first in the series too! I'm liking it so far!

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  3. Glad to hear the series improves with this second book. The advantage of a series is the readers gets to follow along with the authors improvements, if there are any. Sounds like it worked in this case.

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  4. I am so glad I read this review! I started Murder on Monday and felt the exact same way: I enjoyed the characters, but was really not drawn into the plot. I decided not to continue with the series. It sounds as though it is worth reading one more to obtain a true appreciation of the author's talents.

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  5. When I saw the title of your post, I thought you were mixed up about the day of the week! Glad to see this series is worth sticking with.

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  6. Bernadette--Great! I think I have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday around here somewhere, so I hope the series continues to improve!

    Harvee--95% of what I read is from the mystery genre. It's good to see someone else who wants to start at the beginning of a series!

    Margot--Yes, it did!

    Molly--It seems she knew what needed fixing and fixed it, which is always a relief when the characters are so good.

    Kathy--I've been mixed up about several things this week, but the day hasn't been one of them! LOL

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  7. Hum. I have Murder on Monday as DNF. Maybe I should give it another try and then get on with the rest of the week.

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  8. Beth--I'd skim through it to give yourself some sort of refresher if you feel you need one, then move right on to Tuesday.

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