World-renowned children's author Lady Athelinda Playford has an unpleasant surprise for her children and invites Hercule Poirot and Insp. Edward Catchpool to circumvent any foul play. Lady Playford loves a spectacle but plays a more dangerous game when she announces at dinner that she has disinherited her family and left her fortune to her sickly secretary Joseph Scotcher. Despite the presence of Poirot and Catchpool, a desperate and violent murder takes place during the night. Everyone has a motive, but delving deeper into the victim's past only raises more questions, none more significant than why would Lady Playford give all of her wealth to a man with only weeks to live? Hannah follows up The Monogram Murders with the second installment in her Poirot series. While the author is true to the Belgium detective's character and his obsession with "the psychology" and "little grey cells," some aspects of the plot are slightly predictable for a well-versed Agatha Christie reader. Verdict Detective fiction readers and followers of Dame Christie should still give this title a try, as Hannah is a wonderful suspense writer. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]-Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Set in October 1929, bestseller Hannah's captivating sequel to 2014's The Monogram Murders finds Hercule Poirot and Scotland Yard's Insp. Edward Catchpool visiting Lady Athelinda Playford's mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, in the Irish Free State. Other guests include Athie's children, their significant others, her attorneys, and her ailing secretary. At first, Poirot and Catchpool can't figure out why they were invited, but then Athie announces she's drafted a new will leaving everything to her secretary, and they realize their presence is intended to keep the peace. Someone commits murder regardless, and the detecting duo must determine whodunit. An intriguing setup, colorful characters, and witty dialogue elevate this classic manor house mystery. Fiendish schemes and an abundance of interpersonal conflict foster tension and drive plot, while outrageous twists and juicy red herrings confound readers. This Christie estate-sanctioned pastiche isn't perfect-Hannah's Poirot is too subdued and the killer's machinations prove preposterous-but overall, this endeavor confirms that the Queen of Crime's legacy is in capable hands. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* Even Tolstoy's All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way is no match for the Playfords, a rich, dysfunctional clan that finds itself in need of smelling salts over an inheritance gone very wrong. Lady Playford, whose family lives in Ireland but is very much of England, writes children's fiction of the Enid Blyton, jolly-good sort. After she summons Hercule Poirot and Edward Catchpool, a Scotland Yard detective, to a showdown with her family, the tale seems to be shaping up like a domestic murder mystery, but then it branches further afield both geographically and in terms of plot twists. Poirot's and Catchpool's sleuthing skills are put to the test as Hannah's spot-on take on Agatha Christie's milieu and writing moves toward an unpredictable and satisfying finale. Hannah's second Christie novel, after The Monogram Murders (2014), will be devoured by readers of that title and of Christie's original works (the new versions thankfully forego the anti-Semitism found in the earlier ones). The book is ideal, too, for fans of Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher novels and the related TV show, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and for library programs featuring the board game Clue.--Thornton-Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2016 Booklist