Locked Room Murder on the Eve of a Wedding
When I heard that the second season of The Marlow Murder Club was coming to PBS Mystery later this summer, I bumped up Death Comes to Marlow to the top of my to be read pile. I’m assuming the new season will be based on this, the second book in the series. I wasn’t surprised to say that I enjoyed it.
This series features three very different friends who met when a series of murders happened in their English village of Marlow. This book opens six months later, and Judith is enjoying the hyphenation that comes in January. But when she gets invited to a pre-wedding celebration from Sir Peter, she decides to attend. She invites Suzy as her plus one, and Becks is there since her husband, the vicar, is performing the wedding.
However, part way through the party, there’s a loud crash from inside the house. Judith is among those who rush in to discover Sir Peter’s body inside his locked study, crushed to death. All the evidence makes it look like it was a tragic accident, but Judith thinks there is something suspicious about it. Can she figure out what really happened?
Yes, we are looking at a locked room mystery, and this is a doozy. Obviously, I figured out early on it was murder, but my theories on the how the crime happened turned out to be wrong. And the who? I was wrong there as well. But all the clues were there and I appreciated how the puzzle was constructed when I reached the end.
I know my teaser focused on Judith, and she is the brains on the group as well as our viewpoint character the majority of the time. However, both Suzy and Becks provide some pieces of the puzzle as well. All three women get a subplot, which allows them to grow a little. I love their friendships. These are very different people, and they don’t always get each other, but they still have each other’s backs. We see another couple characters from the previous book as well. The rest of the characters might have been new, but they were well developed and helped keep me guessing.
While this book does have some humor, I didn’t feel like it was quite as funny as the first book. It certainly doesn’t have the same number of scenes set up specifically for laughs. Yes, I missed that, but it’s a minor point. And, to be clear, I did still laugh and smile some as I was reading.
As I hinted at earlier, we get some of the book from Judith’s third person point of view, although some passages come from other characters’ viewpoints. These changes are always handled well, so it’s never an issue following what happens.
Death Comes to Marlow is a worthy follow up. I’m looking forward to seeing how this story is translated to the small screen. And I’m glad I already have book three. Now, to find time to read it.
Enjoy the rest of the Marlow Murder Club’s cases.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.