REVIEW: Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd
In the second installment of the Nora Breen Investigates series—“perfect for cozy mystery lovers” (Book Riot)—beloved former nun Nora Breen returns, this time to track down a ghostly killer before it’s too late.
When Dolores Chimes, a famous medium, arrives in Gore-on-Sea, even surly Detective Inspector Rideout is lured in by her promises of messages for the afterlife.
But after a reading goes disastrously wrong, Dolores loses her life—and the six sitters at the séance with her fall victim to supernatural deaths themselves in the days following the nightmare of a reading.
Determined to unveil the truth, Nora finds herself chasing a ghostly serial killer she believes to be responsible, before the sixth victim—Detective Rideout himself—perishes along with the others.
CW/TW – suicide
Bill raises his eyebrows and presses on with his meal.
Dear Ms. Kidd,
I’m delighted to read the second installment of the Nora Breen mysteries. Former nun Nora has settled in at a dumpy boarding house with inedible food, a cranky housekeeper, one nice fellow boarder, a lovely owner who is rarely there, and the owner’s feral, non-speaking child. Soon Nora and Detective Inspector Rideout have a murder, wait two murders and a suicide, no three murders, make that four, nope let’s just say a lot of deaths to investigate.
Rideout throws her a look. ‘Have you been reading mysteries again?’
Nora is the reason to read this series. She’s older, Irish, a former nun, and is now discovering how life has changed in the thirty years she was in the Carmelite monastery. Nora is finding herself. She also needs to get a job as the temporary stipend from the monastery is meant only to get her on her feet.
Nora ponders this. ‘Call it coincidence.’
After shoehorning her way into a previous investigation, Nora has discovered that she enjoys using her brain to puzzle things out. She also notices a lot though not as much as she thought. Somehow the murders are all tied together and must be related to the partial message that was revealed before the death of the spiritualist. The people at the seance are an odd assortment with little seeming connection. That is until Nora begins to wonder if she’s figured out the tie.
I figured out a few twists but will admit to missing one. There’s a lot of sleight of hand here. Paying attention to little details helps. A lot of detective work goes into solving things yet there were obvious things that could and should have been followed up on or looked into. If newbie Nora were leading the investigation, I might have given this a pass but DI Rideout is a seasoned police officer. The ending might either annoy or intrigue readers.
It is fun to watch the two of them work a case together. Nora has good instincts and a lot of “gut feelings.” Rideout has connections and as former military, he can give insights into what might be driving the deaths. Once again Nora has an innate sense of what might get a man talking (it involves a piano) and her interview with one man is hilarious.
‘Now, Mr Grace,’ chides Nora …
‘You have got to be fucking kidding.’
‘Good morning, Freddie.’ Nora employs the exact tone of her recent mother superior: cool, sarcastic, vaguely dismissive.
Grace glares. ‘You can fuck right off.
There are lots of historical details about life in a mid 1950s English seaside resort. The ghastly boarding house where Nora lives might be a touch too quirky but even the (seriously, don’t eat her food) housekeeper is given some background that humanizes her. And young Constable Griggs is being trained up right. So far the nebulous, is-it-or-is-it-not relationship between Nora and Rideout is only that as Nora is holding all men at arms length. I like this and am giving it a slightly higher grade because of Nora and as I mentioned, Nora is still learning who she is now and what she wants from life. B
~Jayne
‘And now?’ Nora asks gently.
‘I still dream. I still shake. The booze helps.’
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I especially enjoy reading mysteries set in England and this time period. My library has the first and perhaps they’ll buy this one, also. Thank you, @ Jayne, for the review.
@LML: I love libraries. Hope you enjoy the first one.