Murder for Good

October 1, 2019
Ellie Quicke (Murder by Suggestion, 2018, etc.) finds herself battered by the winds of good fortune. Pessimists say that if they didn't have bad luck they'd have no luck at all. And Ellie is accustomed to a certain amount of ill fortune. Her feckless daughter, Diana, has a nasty habit of turning up on her doorstep demanding money for one outrageous scheme after another. This time, Diana wants Ellie to sell her large, lovely home so that she can invest the proceeds in a shady real estate scheme that will cover the shortfall of Diana's last unwise business venture. Meanwhile, Ellie has offered homeless Hetty a temporary spot in her house's upper floor apartment only to be rewarded with constant noise and commotion as Hetty invades her kitchen, cooking Ellie and her husband, Thomas, unwanted, inedible meals and joining them uninvited as they try to entertain friends. Even Ellie's good luck is bad: When her clergyman husband starts to receive a series of bequests from parishioners he can't remember, he's spooked at first, then alarmed once the police receive a tip suggesting that Thomas may have deceived or coerced the deceased benefactors into their donations. The crowning blow is the most generous. When Ellie receives a whopping bequest of her own, it takes all her strength, faith, and ingenuity to cope with her windfall. Heley's heroine needs the patience of Job to triumph. Readers will need the same to read about it.

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October 14, 2019
In Heley’s tiresome 20th Ellie Quicke mystery (after 2018’s Murder by Suggestion), Ellie’s retired reverend husband, Thomas, who has a big heart for those in need, offers to let Hetty
, a middle-aged woman with no home and basic skills, stay with him and Ellie in their London house until she gets on her feet. Hetty starts to behave badly, and when asked to leave, she becomes dangerously vindictive, including staging a fake attempted murder and blaming Ellie. In the midst of the turmoil, Thomas starts to receive money from estates of recently deceased people he has never met. After the sixth generous monetary gift, Thomas wants to go to the police, but first Ellie wants to see whether she can unravel the mystery of their good fortune. Too many characters spewing angry tirades (including Diana, Ellie’s obnoxious daughter), a thin plot, and little action until the final pages will try the patience of readers not already invested in the series. This one’s strictly for series fans. Agent: Juliet Burton, Juliet Burton Literary (U.K.).

October 15, 2019
Ellie Quicke's life is in chaos. Her husband, Thomas, has taken in a homeless woman who's offered to cook and clean in return for room and board. But Hetty is hopeless at both cooking and cleaning, and she creates far more chaos than Ellie and Thomas like. Thomas has started receiving bequests from recently deceased parishioners he's ministered to, and while, at first, the extra income is welcome, Thomas is puzzled when the bequests start coming from people he's never met. And Ellie's demanding daughter, Diana, is in debt and wants Ellie to bail her out. But when Thomas is admitted to the hospital and Ellie is imprisoned in her own home under frightening circumstances, she realizes things are truly out of control. And it's up to her get rid of Hetty, find out who Thomas' mysterious benefactors are, and find a way to address Diana's debt problem. Entertaining, quirky, madcap, and heartwarming, this is a good choice for fans of traditional mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)