Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing
Zofia Turbotynska Mystery Series, Book 1
گزارش تخلف
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
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نقد و بررسی
Starred review from January 27, 2020
Set in 1893 Cracow, this exceptional debut and series launch from Polish author Szymiczkowa (the pen name of writing duo Jacek Dehnel and Piotr Tarczynski) introduces Zofia Turbotynska, a 38-year-old professor’s wife, who finds household management, novel reading, and the search for social prestige insufficient outlets for her prodigious energy. At a nursing home run by nuns that she visits to promote a charitable cause, she becomes involved in the search for a missing resident, Antonina Mohr, a judge’s widow. Zofia questions the home’s staff and residents, hiding her unofficial investigation from both the mother superior and her husband. After Mohr’s suspiciously pink-hued corpse is found in an attic, Zofia pressures the resident doctor until an autopsy reveals cyanide poisoning. The strangling of one of the home’s impoverished residents complicates the puzzle. The preface offers helpful context on place and period, while the translation showcases the novel’s deliciously ironic voice. Fans who like colorful locales and tongue-in-cheek mysteries will eagerly await Zofia’s next outing.
This audio whodunit stands out because it is beguilingly set in fin-de-si�cle Cracow. Featuring a self-important amateur snoop addicted to reading cozy mysteries, it should be stylish period fun, like Benson's Mapp v. Lucia stories. Unfortunately, given the shrill bossy voice Moira Quirk gives our social-climbing housewife sleuth, Zofia Turbotynska, she comes across as insensitive and snobbish rather than hilariously transparent, and she's not nearly as much fun to spend time with as she should be. Quirk's European pronunciations are wonderfully atmospheric, and the plot, featuring murders in a fancy retirement home that only Zofia believes are connected, is engaging. The lost world of nineteenth-century bourgeois Polish society is the real draw here, and the period detail and social history are well worth the listen. B.G. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
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