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Verity Birdwood #2
Murder by the Book
It was the publishing event of the season . . . until someone added murder to the menu.
When Quentin Hale, the ruthless new takeover boss of one of Australia s oldest publishing houses, launched a glittering round of parties, interviews, and book signings to promote his top four authors, he unwittingly whipped up a recipe for disaster.
His jolly author of popular gardening books was actually a notorious lush. His successful authoress of muckraking biographies was a malicious troublemaker. And his queen of children s books had once shared a disastrous love affair with his number-one novelist, a man teetering on the brink of yet another nervous breakdown.
The disgruntled staff could have warned Hale that the promotion was a deadly mistake, if he d asked. But even they couldn t have known just how deadly . . . until one famed author downed a fatal drink and a second soon went missing. Now it looks as if someone in this literary crew has been plotting murder all along. Can editor Kate Delaney and her friend Birdie catch the killer before he writes off his next victim?"
When Quentin Hale, the ruthless new takeover boss of one of Australia s oldest publishing houses, launched a glittering round of parties, interviews, and book signings to promote his top four authors, he unwittingly whipped up a recipe for disaster.
His jolly author of popular gardening books was actually a notorious lush. His successful authoress of muckraking biographies was a malicious troublemaker. And his queen of children s books had once shared a disastrous love affair with his number-one novelist, a man teetering on the brink of yet another nervous breakdown.
The disgruntled staff could have warned Hale that the promotion was a deadly mistake, if he d asked. But even they couldn t have known just how deadly . . . until one famed author downed a fatal drink and a second soon went missing. Now it looks as if someone in this literary crew has been plotting murder all along. Can editor Kate Delaney and her friend Birdie catch the killer before he writes off his next victim?"
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First published December 1, 1989
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About the author
Jennifer Rowe
34 books45 followersAlso known as: Mary-Anne Dickinson, Mary Anne Dickinson, Emily Rodda
Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (1995).
Jennifer June Rowe is an Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonyms Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson. She is well known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin, Fairy Realm and Teen Power Inc., and recently the Rondo trilogy.
Rowe was born in Sydney, Australia, and raised with two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore. Her father was Jim Oswin, the founding general manager of ATN7 in Sydney, and was responsible for classic 1960s TV shows such as My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? and The Mavis Bramston Show. She attended the Abbotsleigh School for Girls on the upper North Shore of Sydney.
She attained her Master of Arts in English Literature at the University of Sydney in 1973. Her first job was assistant editor at Paul Hamlyn publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers where she remained for fourteen years as Editor, Senior Editor, Managing Director, Deputy Publisher and finally Publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda.
Winner of the Dromkeen Medal (1995).
Jennifer June Rowe is an Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonyms Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson. She is well known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin, Fairy Realm and Teen Power Inc., and recently the Rondo trilogy.
Rowe was born in Sydney, Australia, and raised with two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore. Her father was Jim Oswin, the founding general manager of ATN7 in Sydney, and was responsible for classic 1960s TV shows such as My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? and The Mavis Bramston Show. She attended the Abbotsleigh School for Girls on the upper North Shore of Sydney.
She attained her Master of Arts in English Literature at the University of Sydney in 1973. Her first job was assistant editor at Paul Hamlyn publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers where she remained for fourteen years as Editor, Senior Editor, Managing Director, Deputy Publisher and finally Publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 14, 2017
I love this series! I'd describe it as an intelligent cozy (as I believe cozies have deteriorated in recent years) or a solid traditional mystery. I was completely fooled by the solution as I was sure I knew whodunnit. Verity Birdwood, the amateur sleuth, is a bit of an enigma and somewhat difficult to warm up to, like Holmes, but Kate acts as her Watson as she outwits the local professional investigators. Only 5 books in this series, so I will savor the remaining three I have to read.
August 21, 2017
Every few years I rediscover--or rather, remember--Jennifer Rowe, and check to see if more of her books are available in the United States. Usually, I'm disappointed. What a shame that this popular Australian author is so unknown here! The Australian publishing firm of Berry & Michaels has been bought by an English conglomerate, which sends a new managing director to replace a much-loved member of the firm's founding family. The new director and his minion arrange for a big publicity campaign, which the old hands know will be a disaster. But even they do not expect murder. Fortunately, Verity Birdwood is on hand, researching the firm for a television show, and can give the police detectives a slight shove in the right direction.
November 21, 2023
Thoroughly enjoyable, a real page turner with twists and turns.
January 29, 2020
Good, clean, murderous fun.
It's been 20 years since I read the Verity Birdwood novels as a crime-fiction-loving youth, and it's been marvellous to rediscover them. In Murder by the Book, Birdie investigates the death of a renowned author on the premises of her friend Kate's workplace. Much as in Grim PickingsGrim Pickings, which was set almost entirely in two neighbouring houses, this sequel is set almost entirely in or within sight of the five-storey heritage publishing house near Sydney Harbour. This creates an atmosphere of swirling doubt and fear, a world where murder is always close by, but also threaded into the everyday lives of these characters.
From the list of characters on the first page to the recurring clarifications of building geography, it's clear that Rowe enjoys the "nuts and bolts" of classic detective fiction. The astute reader needs to keep track of times and locations (always conscious of potential red herrings) as well as character history, strange coincidences, and the most mundane of clues. As in the first book, Rowe is scrupulously fair with the reader, leaving every clue in plain sight, but obfuscating the surrounding facts to deceive. Now that I'm on to her style, I picked up on many of the clues without being able to figure out how they linked together. (If there's a flaw in this type of crime lit, it's that characters often don't sound like characters; they're required to give a monologue or obsess over who else was in the room with them so that it goes beyond natural dialogue and into evidence.)
I didn't quite enjoy this as much as Grim Pickings but I'm nevertheless keen to read the rest of the series again. Partly it's the nature of the killings: (moderate spoiler to the overall solution rather than specifics) Perhaps it's that Birdie doesn't play a large role for the first two-thirds of the book, or that I didn't feel like the atmosphere was as evocative as the previous novel.
Still, Birdie comes across strongly on the page: this scrappy researcher who hides her wealthy upbringing and her intellectual charm so well. She's a fun character, aided by Kate (her Captain Hastings) and the smarter-than-they-seem police. And the larger-than-life personas of the writers make for a constantly engaging novel.
For me, one of the joys of Rowe's series is the anthropological. This book is only 30 years old, but gosh how the world has changed. Characters wait for the evening newspaper; police are waiting several days for evidence to be available to them; and I suspect the media would have cottoned on to much of the drama much earlier if this book were written in 2020! It must be true of many novels, but revisiting crime fiction from (just) within my lifetime - given the genre's focus on small details - feels like a journey to a land one vaguely remembers, but which now seems so very far away.
So, a fun entry in the series but I wouldn't say it's the best one to start with.
It's been 20 years since I read the Verity Birdwood novels as a crime-fiction-loving youth, and it's been marvellous to rediscover them. In Murder by the Book, Birdie investigates the death of a renowned author on the premises of her friend Kate's workplace. Much as in Grim PickingsGrim Pickings, which was set almost entirely in two neighbouring houses, this sequel is set almost entirely in or within sight of the five-storey heritage publishing house near Sydney Harbour. This creates an atmosphere of swirling doubt and fear, a world where murder is always close by, but also threaded into the everyday lives of these characters.
From the list of characters on the first page to the recurring clarifications of building geography, it's clear that Rowe enjoys the "nuts and bolts" of classic detective fiction. The astute reader needs to keep track of times and locations (always conscious of potential red herrings) as well as character history, strange coincidences, and the most mundane of clues. As in the first book, Rowe is scrupulously fair with the reader, leaving every clue in plain sight, but obfuscating the surrounding facts to deceive. Now that I'm on to her style, I picked up on many of the clues without being able to figure out how they linked together. (If there's a flaw in this type of crime lit, it's that characters often don't sound like characters; they're required to give a monologue or obsess over who else was in the room with them so that it goes beyond natural dialogue and into evidence.)
I didn't quite enjoy this as much as Grim Pickings but I'm nevertheless keen to read the rest of the series again. Partly it's the nature of the killings: (moderate spoiler to the overall solution rather than specifics) Perhaps it's that Birdie doesn't play a large role for the first two-thirds of the book, or that I didn't feel like the atmosphere was as evocative as the previous novel.
Still, Birdie comes across strongly on the page: this scrappy researcher who hides her wealthy upbringing and her intellectual charm so well. She's a fun character, aided by Kate (her Captain Hastings) and the smarter-than-they-seem police. And the larger-than-life personas of the writers make for a constantly engaging novel.
For me, one of the joys of Rowe's series is the anthropological. This book is only 30 years old, but gosh how the world has changed. Characters wait for the evening newspaper; police are waiting several days for evidence to be available to them; and I suspect the media would have cottoned on to much of the drama much earlier if this book were written in 2020! It must be true of many novels, but revisiting crime fiction from (just) within my lifetime - given the genre's focus on small details - feels like a journey to a land one vaguely remembers, but which now seems so very far away.
So, a fun entry in the series but I wouldn't say it's the best one to start with.
January 29, 2024
Es gab ein paar Dinge, die mir an diesem Buch weniger gefallen haben, als am ersten Band. Zum einen wurden die Frauen in diesem Buch meiner Ansicht nach weit öfter auf mysogyn anmutende Weise beschrieben, was im ersten Teil erfreulicherweise kaum der Fall war. Dass sich das in diese Richtung verändert, ist für mich auch mal was Neues. Die Story und die Auflösung haben mich nicht ganz so mitgerissen wie im ersten Band, aber auch bei diesem Buch kann ich sagen, dass ich die einzelnen Charaktere gut erzählt fand. Auch hier waren es nicht lauter Klischees und keine der Figuren hat mich gelangweilt. Auch wenn mich der Mordfall, wie gesagt, nicht so in seinen Bann gezogen hat wie im ersten Teil, fand ich ihn wieder sehr gelungen, da das Ende nicht von Anfang an offensichtlich, aber im Nachhinein auch nicht unmöglich zu erraten war. Die für mich beste Stelle im Buch war die, in der Tilly plötzlich die Treppe zum Dach hochkommt. Ich hatte in dem Moment wirklich nicht damit gerechnet und war total mitgerissen.
Da mir die ersten beiden Bücher zum einen nicht gleich gut gefallen haben, ich dieses hier aber trotzdem ziemlich gut fand, bin ich mir unsicher mit der Sternebewertung, die wird sich vielleicht noch ändern. Im Moment halte ich aber fünf Sterne für angemessen. Geschmack ist ja sowieso subjektiv, wie sich hier auch wieder an der Durchschnittsbewertung zeigt.
Da mir die ersten beiden Bücher zum einen nicht gleich gut gefallen haben, ich dieses hier aber trotzdem ziemlich gut fand, bin ich mir unsicher mit der Sternebewertung, die wird sich vielleicht noch ändern. Im Moment halte ich aber fünf Sterne für angemessen. Geschmack ist ja sowieso subjektiv, wie sich hier auch wieder an der Durchschnittsbewertung zeigt.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2022
It was so goooood. I thought I'd had it figured out a few times, but I was wrong. Then I was right! Then I got myself tricked! Great read. The writing is really familiar and makes me feel very comfortable. I practically read this book in one sitting. Couldn't put it down.
August 3, 2016
This is a down-under variation on the traditional "locked room" mystery. The employees and the top four writers for a publishing company are the only ones in the building for a big event when one of the authors dies. It might have been a suicide but then a second attendee dies, and then a third.
The long list of characters in the front of the book should have given me a clue. There are too many characters in this book. Many of them have enough emotional baggage to require a luggage cart. Birdie is a snoop and the amateur detective. Jack is a drunk. Barbara is a bitch. Quentin is clueless. Evie is vindictive. Saul is depressed. Malcolm is ambitious. Amy has a dark secret. Paul is angry. Tilly is a drama queen. Dorothy is lonely & homesick. Sarah is dominated by her mother. Sid is surly. Kate is sort of a narrator and passive observer and David, Lulu, Mary and Patricia are so without personality that, when they popped in periodically, I couldn't remember who they were.
Considering that Verity Birdwood is supposed to be the amateur detective and the series features her, she actually plays a small role in the book. I didn't read the first book in the series but there wasn't any set-up or justification in this book to explain why Detective-Sergeant Toby should even pay any particular attention to Birdie's observations much less have involved her in his investigation.
Most of the book seemed to be taken up by explaining who went where when and who used the stairs and who took the elevator.
The long list of characters in the front of the book should have given me a clue. There are too many characters in this book. Many of them have enough emotional baggage to require a luggage cart. Birdie is a snoop and the amateur detective. Jack is a drunk. Barbara is a bitch. Quentin is clueless. Evie is vindictive. Saul is depressed. Malcolm is ambitious. Amy has a dark secret. Paul is angry. Tilly is a drama queen. Dorothy is lonely & homesick. Sarah is dominated by her mother. Sid is surly. Kate is sort of a narrator and passive observer and David, Lulu, Mary and Patricia are so without personality that, when they popped in periodically, I couldn't remember who they were.
Considering that Verity Birdwood is supposed to be the amateur detective and the series features her, she actually plays a small role in the book. I didn't read the first book in the series but there wasn't any set-up or justification in this book to explain why Detective-Sergeant Toby should even pay any particular attention to Birdie's observations much less have involved her in his investigation.
Most of the book seemed to be taken up by explaining who went where when and who used the stairs and who took the elevator.
June 20, 2009
Like a grittier, modern Agatha Christie novel. Rowe manages to create amazingly vivid and realistic human portraits in Murder By The Book, combined with a very believable plot.
Every single character was flawed without being forcibly so; you can easily imagine people like Tilly, Saul, Barbara and Jack in real life. I spent the entire novel disgusted at their ridiculous antics and personalities, but rather than detracting from the book, it provides the reader with an opportunity to reflect on the greed and selfishness of people in a detached manner. Even Birdie, who's supposed to be the detective (often a role used as a stabilizer in all the chaos), is surprisingly unlikeable. That also prevented the reader from getting attached to anyone, but it was only a minor weakness.
Murder By The Book presents "murder" as something that can be both horrifying and curiously mundane, depending on the treatment by different individuals. Tilly's lack of remorse or fear at the act of killing someone made it seem like a frighteningly normal way of getting what you want - something that can really happen nearby, rather than something scary that'll go away after you finish reading. Definitely a very interesting read, with a bit of a twist at the end.
Every single character was flawed without being forcibly so; you can easily imagine people like Tilly, Saul, Barbara and Jack in real life. I spent the entire novel disgusted at their ridiculous antics and personalities, but rather than detracting from the book, it provides the reader with an opportunity to reflect on the greed and selfishness of people in a detached manner. Even Birdie, who's supposed to be the detective (often a role used as a stabilizer in all the chaos), is surprisingly unlikeable. That also prevented the reader from getting attached to anyone, but it was only a minor weakness.
Murder By The Book presents "murder" as something that can be both horrifying and curiously mundane, depending on the treatment by different individuals. Tilly's lack of remorse or fear at the act of killing someone made it seem like a frighteningly normal way of getting what you want - something that can really happen nearby, rather than something scary that'll go away after you finish reading. Definitely a very interesting read, with a bit of a twist at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 30, 2018
For my full review click on the link below:
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