Marlow Murder Club #5
This charming series inhabits the same universe as Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books. The books are intelligent, well observed, occasionally funny – as well as being very clever mysteries. The “Marlow Murder Club” consists of the intellectual, crossword puzzle loving Judith; dogwalker Suzie; and Becks, the wife of the vicar of Marlow (the vicar plays a very small supporting role). The unofficial member of the club is Tanika, an actual police officer, who has come to rely on them.
As the book opens, series stalwarts Judith and Tanika are undergoing some huge problems which affects the investigation that follows. There’s been a shooting of a famous footballer and while Suzie and Becks are all over it, Judith seems curiously unengaged. Tanika is surreptitiously pushing the women forward and the reason for that shortly becomes clear: she’s has been suspended and replaced by the doltish Brendan who tells the women to stay out of his investigation.
As the first murder is quickly followed by another, the death of a famous thriller writer, the women are certain the two killings are connected. Meanwhile, Judith is dealing with her own problems. Long ago she was married to a Greek man and lived on Corfu; the man drowned in a boating accident, and his daughter has appeared, telling Judith she knows she killed him. The death has been considered an accident for decades, but Judith is unsettled by the woman’s appearance, and she also seems unsettled about the man’s long ago death.
Even so, the three women continue to investigate the two killings, making up their traditional murder board in Judith’s library. They unravel layers of connections in their small town between the members of the upper and storied classes, finding fissures in their lives that lead them to a third suspect and a solution to the crimes.
The books are special for many reasons. The main reason, of course, are the different personalities of the three women, who compliment each other and move the mysteries forward. Judith is the complex, logical thinker; Suzie, the brave and impulsive one; and Becks, the one most grounded in reality and the community as the wife of the local vicar. These are basically smart Nancy Drew stories for grown ups.
The emotional underpinnings in this story, especially the ones that fill out Judith’s long ago tragedy and the resolution to it, give the book a real resonance. This little Eden, this little perfect investigative unit, has been upended and it’s up to the women of Marlow to restore things to rights. Never fear, dear reader, they do. What a delightful read. — Robin Agnew