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Monday, April 23, 2018

Murder has a motive by Francis Duncan





Like Miss Marple, murder seems to have a habit of following Mordecai Tremaine around. When visiting old friends in the village of Dalmering, very English, very scenic far removed from the ugliness of murder and suspects, he unexpectedly finds himself in the midst of a murder where suspects are rife and though public opinion is determinedly fixed on one candidate, both Scotland Yard and our Mr. Tremaine thinks it fits in too neatly and seems too easy.

When a second murder takes place, the whole village is in an uproar. Unlike most mystery murders the characters here are not very vibrant and out of place. They seem very ordinary folk who may not even be noticed by anyone. Putting on a play for a charity seems to be the entire scope for the village and all attention is focused on this. There are several undercurrents amongst the villagers not really apparent at the beginning and Tremaine is at times even uncomfortable with his old friend the doctor and his wife whom he has known for years.

Old fashioned detective work goes on here alongside amateur detective work by Tremaine. Not a fast paced novel but not dull either. It is just slightly old fashioned and not as enthralling as an Agatha
Christie though Miss Marple would be of the same vintage.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Sourcebooks Landmark.


6 comments:

  1. This sounds like a fun read. I like the cover. It definitely has a vintage feel to it.

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  2. My mom would probably enjoy this one.

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  3. I've never read Miss Marple but have heard of her. Is there a TV series based on the books?

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  4. I've never read Miss Marple before but I like the sound of this one. Great book cover too. It does remind me of an old-fashioned murder mystery.

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  5. Oh I've heard of these but not read them. Looks pretty good :)

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  6. I definitely want to read this one. It sounds good.

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