Peril at the Exposition

February 1, 2022

In The Paper Caper, Carlisle's latest "Bibliophile Mystery," murder transpires at the first annual Mark Twain Festival, held by Brooklyn Wainwright at her bookstore and underwritten by media magnate Joseph Cabot. In Castillo's The Hidden One, Amish elders turn to Painters Mill chief of police Kate Burkholder when the remains of a long-vanished bishop are discovered, bearing evidence of foul play (150,000-copy first printing). Private informer Flavia Albia's next Desperate Undertaking is finding a serial killer (or killers) committing brutal murder and staging the corpses around Davis's first-century CE Rome (30,000-copy first printing). In Hokuloa Road, cross genre-writing, Shirley Jackson Award-winning Hand makes Grady Kendall caretaker of a luxury property in Hawaii (as far as possible from his native Maine), then has him hunting for a young woman from his flight who has since vanished (30,000-copy first printing). In McCall Smith's The Sweet Remnants of Summer, Isabel Dalhousie is serving on an advisory committee for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery when she is caught up in the squabbles of a prominent family where Nationalist vs. Socialist ideologies prevail. In Peril at the Exposition, a follow-up to March's Edgar finalist debut, Murder in Old Bombay, newlyweds Capt. Jim Agnihotri and Diana Framji have left British-ruled Bombay (now Mumbai) for 1890s Boston when Jim is sent to investigate a murder in Chicago (50,000-copy first printing). In Munier's The Wedding Plot, Mercy's grandmother Patience is set to marry her longtime beloved at the five-star Lady's Slipper Inn when family enmities bubble to the surface, the inn's spa director vanishes, and a stranger turns up dead (30,000-copy first printing). In An Honest Living--a debut from Murphy, editor in chief of CrimeReads, Literary Hub's crime fiction vertical--an attorney picking up odd jobs after walking out on his stranglehold law firm agrees to help reclusive literati Anna Reddick find her possibly thieving bookseller husband, and all's well until the real Anna Reddick walks in. In Rosenfelt's Holy Chow, an older woman who adopts sweet senior chow mix Tessie from Andy Carpenter's Tara Foundation makes Andy promise that if she dies he will take care of Tessie provided that her son cannot--which he certainly can't when he is arrested days later on suspicion of his mother's murder (60,000-copy first printing).

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May 16, 2022
Edgar finalist March’s solid sequel to 2020’s Murder in Old Bombay takes Anglo-Indian Jim Agnihotri, a former British army captain, and his bride, Diana, whom he met while probing the supposed suicides of her sister and sister-in-law, from India to America in 1893. Before they can settle into their new life in Boston, Jim’s employers at the Dupree Detective Agency send him to Chicago, the site of the under-construction World’s Fair, to investigate the murder of a security guard. When weeks pass with no word from Jim, Diana gets increasingly anxious. She has more to worry about when a stranger shares a message in German intended for Jim referencing explosives. Diana then learns that Jim’s bosses are also uncertain of his whereabouts and that the colleague he was supposed to aid in Chicago has been killed. The redoubtable Diana bullies the Duprees into hiring her as an operative to follow her husband’s trail. The predictable plot marks this as a more conventional mystery than its predecessor, which was bolstered by its focus on Anglo-Indian politics. Fans of Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy series will find plenty to like.

May 15, 2022
March, whose debut mystery, Murder in Old Bombay (2020), was an Edgar finalist, moves Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife, Diana Framji, to Boston and then to Chicago at the outset of the Columbian Exposition, in this second in the series. The move may disappoint fans of the first book's richly realized depiction of life under British rule in India, but March makes the most of his new settings. Jim, now an apprentice detective at the Dupree Detective Agency in Boston, is assigned to Chicago to investigate the murder of one of their operatives. Then he disappears, and it's up to Diana to find him in Chicago. No mean trick, as Jim, a master of disguise, has left no means of contacting him in case of trouble. The plot that both Jim and Diana must foil involves anarchists' explosives, set to go off at the Exposition's opening. This one isn't quite as convincingly developed as Old Bombay, but the mystery is strong, and it's supported by plenty of intriguing historical detail.

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May 15, 2022
An intrepid damsel sidesteps distress to unravel a dangerous plot involving the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Newlywed Lady Diana Framji O'Trey has just settled into a Boston flat with her husband, Capt. James Agnihotri, after a long journey from Bombay when he's called away to Chicago, the site of the upcoming Columbian Exposition, on a secret assignment for the Dupree Detective Agency. After several weeks pass with no word from Jim, a cryptic visit from professor Rolf Grimke sends Diana's fears into overdrive. The evasiveness of the agency about Jim's assignment only heightens them, as does the news that Baldwin, the man who preceded Jim on this case, was murdered. Diana undertakes the rugged trek to Chicago to find him, with elderly porter Tobias Brown as a companion. Aboard the train, she enlists plucky Abigail Martin as sidekick and guide. The fair itself is like a gleaming city, full of hope for a bright future. Diana's quick thinking enables her to rescue a man clinging to an elevated train. This exploit lands her name in the papers, leading to her brief reunion with Jim, who warns her not to get involved in his dangerous case, advice she agrees to but ignores. March packs her story with so many colorful supporting characters--a veritable United Nations assembly--and offers such a lively period setting that readers may ignore the many twists and turns in the plot. No matter; it's the picturesque journey of the sleuthing team through an anarchist cell, the mystery surrounding a mine explosion, and a reunion with Jim to assemble the pieces of the puzzle that distinguishes March's novel. A flashy vintage romp with a spirited heroine and nonstop surprises.

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