Who Poisoned the Mayor?
I’ve been starting the year reading books in series I’m trying to catch up on. The latest of these is The Queen of Poisons, the third Marlow Murder Club book from Robert Thorogood. As with the first two, I found it delightful.
I’m sure it is no surprise when I say the series takes place on Marlow, England. It features three unlikely friends who have taken it upon themselves to solve the local murders. They get quite a bit of leeway from the local police in the form of recently promoted Tanika Malik. Even then, they tend to insert themselves much more than Tanika wants.
This new case starts when Suzie Harris goes to a planning meeting. She just wants to get the lay of the land since she has a new side hustle she is going to need the board’s approval for before she can start. But, to everyone’s horror, the mayor keels over dead just as the meeting is starting. Suzie quickly calls her friends Judith Potts and Becks Starling. With Tanika’s grudging approval, the trio start trying to figure out just how the killer managed to poison the mayor. But everyone they talk to say he was a great guy. Who would want him dead?
I had to laugh at some of the inaccuracies in this book. Not only about Tanika pulling in our characters but how quickly they get forensic results. Even TV shows aren’t as fast as these results are.
But most of what I was laughing at were the characters. I love our trio and how they interact with each other and the suspects. They truly are delightful. They each had a subplot of their own to give them some chances to shine and grow.
The plot was very well constructed with strong suspects. I thought I had things figured out a time or two, but the ultimate solution made perfect sense. I do feel like the climax was a bit overly theatrical and a bit overly monologuing. But it did wrap up most of the questions we’d had over the course of the book.
I’d bought the first book before we got the TV series here in the states, but I watched that first season first. As a result, I can’t help but picture how the actors portray our leads as I’m reading. It’s not normally my preference when reading, but the actresses have brought them to life so well on screen it does help the characters leap off the page as I read.
I’ve got a couple more books to go to be up to date on the series. We will see if I can catch up this year or not. Either way, as The Queen of Poisons proves, I’m sure I’ll have fun trying.
Enjoy the rest of the Marlow Murder Club Mysteries.
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