The Poisoned Chalice Murder

October 13, 2014
Jennifer Reynolds, the heroine of this intricately plotted romantic suspense novel from British author Janes (The Pull of the Moon), escapes an unhappy marriage and humdrum existence by setting up a new identity and relocating to Lasthwaite, a quiet town in the Yorkshire Dales. Years later, she is managing a health center and is eagerly anticipating her wedding to a local teacher, Rob Dugdale, who knows nothing of her past. When a TV documentary airs about three women who went missing and were never found again, including herself, she fears that she’ll be exposed by the media coverage. The murder of a 15-year-old girl, who was on her way home from the school where Rob teaches, focuses further attention on Lasthwaite, adding to her worries. After a second body appears, Jennifer must decide whether to try to preserve her new life or reveal her true identity and risk losing everything she has successfully built. The action builds to a chilling yet satisfying ending.

November 15, 2014
A runaway wife finds her new life threatened when the murder of a schoolgirl brings the police to her doorstep.Jennifer Reynolds goes from the frying pan straight into the fire. She leaves her stern, unloving parents for Alan, an antiques dealer whose trinket-filled living quarters seem at first a refuge from her parents' obsessively clean house. But Alan treats Jennifer like a backward child, missing no chance to belittle her. So one day, simple Jennifer simply takes off. A series of dead-end jobs under a string of temporary identities keeps body and soul together until the death of an old school acquaintance, Susan McCarthy, gives Jennifer the chance at something more permanent. Since Susan died in France, no death certificate has been recorded in England. Armed with enough vital statistics to apply for a birth certificate, Jennifer becomes Susan. By the time she reaches Lasthwaite, a resurrected Susan McCarthy has a car, bank accounts and enough work history to apply for a real job as manager of Lasthwaite Health Centre. She also finds real romance with kind, solid Rob Dugdale, a teacher at a local secondary school. Susan is hesitant about accepting Rob's proposal-after all, as Jennifer, she already has a husband. But she longs for a real home and family. She's already on edge when a local television station airs Disappeared!, which tells the story of three unsolved missing persons cases, including Jennifer's. But the murder of Rob's student Julie Peacock threatens to push her over the edge-especially when the police learn that Rob was the last person to see Julie alive. Janes (Why Didn't You Come for Me?, 2011) sets up a clever puzzle only to trash it with a solution as improbable as it is long-winded.

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Starred review from October 24, 2016
British author Janes (Swimming in the Shadows) strikes the perfect balance between gore and sappiness in this satisfyingly sweet police procedural. Det. Constable Peter Betts and Det. Sgt. Hannah McMahon make a more-than-professional connection while reexamining the cold case kidnapping of heiress Jude Thackeray, whose unknown captor let her get away. Jude has since become romantically involved with Mark Medlicott, who tries to help her through the aftershocks of her past trauma, though his motives for doing so may not be the purest. Meanwhile, a loner named Stefan makes disturbing plans on an isolated beach in Cornwall. The bold pairing of the good-natured secret relationship between Peter and Hannah and the sordid romantic intrigue involving Mark and Jude raises readers’ interest in both. Janes deftly, suddenly transforms her audience’s understanding of her protagonists several times without making delayed disclosures feel like literary trickery, keeping tension high to the very end.

November 1, 2016
When police detectives Peter Betts and Hannah McMahon are asked to reinvestigate the never-solved case of Jude Thackeray, they have no idea that what they find will lead them into both personal and professional crises. Jude was kidnapped by her then-boyfriend, physically assaulted, and then taken to the woods to be killed. Although Jude managed to escape, her would-be killer was never found. All of the information Jude offered about her boyfriend captor led to dead ends. After many months, Jude has managed to recover sufficiently and has a new boyfriend, who treats her with kindness and patience. But as Peter and Hannah work on what is now a very cold case, they find that nothing is as it seemed. In a series of ever-more-shocking revelations, the bizarre story is finally revealed. An edge-of-the-seat, keep-'em-guessing murder case with mind-blowing twists, an imaginative plot, plenty of suspense, brave heroes, and truly dastardly villains.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2018
Amateur sleuths Fran Black and Tom Dod return in this charming mystery set in an English village in 1929. The duo, who met while attending literary-society events, felt an instant affinity with one another but were unable to progress romantically due to unusual personal circumstances. Putting their energy into sleuthing instead, they have solved several mysteries. When Tom's Aunt Hetty contacts them to say she thinks something odd is going on in her village and asks for their help, they agree to investigate. Hetty says there's a controversial new vicar in town who has split the congregation, with some members leaving the church and others sending a letter of protest to the bishop. Now three of those who signed the letter have died, seemingly of natural causes, but Aunt Hetty isn't convinced. Is a cold-blooded killer at work? A revealing look at the social customs of the time, a cast of captivating characters in the Agatha Christie mold, and an engaging plot make this a good pick for fans of the traditional British cozy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)