Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood

 

First Line: After the excitement of the previous summer, Mrs. Judith Potts spent the winter returning to the more solitary rhythms of life.

 

When prominent Marlow resident Sir Peter Bailey calls local crossword puzzle author Judith Potts and asks her to attend a celebration at his house the day before his wedding, she really doesn't want to go, but she relents. Bailey sounded worried-- almost as if he wanted her there to be some sort of witness-- and, after all, his house is close by and there will be free champagne. 

 

During the party, there's a loud crash. Sir Peter, the groom-to-be, has been crushed to death in his study. Since the door was locked from the inside, the police naturally assume Sir Peter committed suicide. Judith thinks otherwise, and soon she and the other two members of the Marlow Murder Club are out to prove that Sir Peter was murdered.

 

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Death Comes to Marlow is a fun, light read for those who love quirky characters and cleverly constructed puzzles. The three members of the Marlow Murder Club are sure to keep readers smiling. Septuagenarian Judith Potts is a skinny-dipping, whiskey-loving crossword author who loves solving a good puzzle and being in charge. Her two companions-- Becks the vicar's wife and Suzie the dogwalker-- sometimes chafe at Judith's take-charge attitude. Still, after what happened in The Marlow Murder Club, they've come to realize that they've got a talent for solving mysteries, too, so they're willing to put up with a bit of bossiness. 

Their contact in the local police department, DS Tanika Malik, has had a bit of a demotion. Her boss is back from sick leave and doesn't approve of how she stole the spotlight from him while he was gone. He declares Sir Peter Bailey's death a suicide and tells Tanika to catalog the evidence and keep her nose out of the investigation (not that there really is one). How she and the Marlow Murder Club find ways to work together to solve the mystery is one of the best parts of the book.

Death Comes to Marlow has a very cleverly constructed mystery containing a locked room murder in a country house and a missing will, but that's not all. There's also the mystery surrounding secret messages contained in the local newspaper's weekly crossword puzzles as well as Becks' strange behavior that has Judith and Suzie worried.

If there was any drawback to this second book in the series, it was the time it took for the Christie-esque get-all-the-suspects-in-the-same-room reveal. It took way too long, and I kept wanting to tell Judith to cut to the chase and stop showing off. How long did it seem? The reveal alone seemed to take up three hundred pages in a two hundred eighty-eight-page book. That's how long. I remember feeling a bit the same way when I read The Marlow Murder Club, but this second book went to all new heights. As delightful as the characters are in this series, the glacial reveal may put me off reading any future books, more's the pity.

Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood

eISBN: 9781728250564

Poisoned Pen Press © 2023

eBook, 288 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #2 Marlow Murder Club mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Net Galley

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

 

First Line: Mrs. Judith Potts was seventy-seven years old and entirely happy with her life.

 

Nothing ever happens in the village of Marlow on the banks of the River Thames. Whisky-drinking seventy-seven-year-old Judith Potts enjoys living in her dilapidated mansion, setting crossword puzzles for newspapers, wearing what she calls her "cloak of invisibility," and midnight skinny dipping in the Thames. 

But that all changes one night when she hears her neighbor across the river being shot. The local police don't believe her, and that jumpstarts Judith's investigation. Along the way, she picks up two sidekicks: Suzie the dogwalker, and Becks the vicar's wife. The three are now the Marlow Murder Club.

When a second body turns up, the three realize they have a serial killer on their hands, and the fun puzzle they set out to solve may turn deadly for them all.

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The Marlow Murder Club is just plain fun to read; I think I had a smile on my face most of the time as I read it. Robert Thorogood has created the perfect trio of amateur sleuths: each smart, each funny, each resourceful, each flawed in some way, and a force to be reckoned with when all three of them stand together.

Judith Potts is one of those lovable English eccentrics who loves her whisky, shares her knowledge of crossword puzzles, and doesn't pass up an opportunity to go skinny dipping in the Thames. Becks Starling is the local vicar's wife, who has a touch of OCD (keep a tight rein on her when visiting a crime scene), plenty of useful local contacts, and really knows how to think on her feet. Suzie Harris, as a local dog walker, has her own contacts, and-- whether she realizes it or not-- is just as strong and important as the other two members of the Marlow Murder Club. 

These three women share their findings with Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik, who finds herself as Senior Investigating Officer of multiple murders because her superior is on sick leave. At first, the three women drive Malik batty, but she soon sees that they can be quite a help to her, and she comes up with an ingenious way to bring them on board her investigation.

The Marlow Murder Club is being described as Agatha Christie-esque and compared with Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. I think both comparisons are superficial and more wishful marketing than anything else. For me, the characterizations outshone the mystery because of its (to me) obvious plot connection to an Alfred Hitchcock movie, so as far as I'm concerned, this book is more Hitchcock than Christie-- which isn't necessarily a bad thing. As far as the Osman comparison, it's all marketing. Both books feature at least one elderly person solving a crime. For my money, Thorogood's The Marlow Murder Club is much the better choice. It keeps its focus and its humor, and the more manageable, smaller band of sleuths absolutely sparkles. I can't wait to see what happens in Marlow next.

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

eISBN: 9781728250533

Poisoned Pen Press © 2022

eBook, 288 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #1 Marlow Murder Club mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley