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I wasn't really planning to read this book when I did, but after scanning the first couple of pages I was completely hooked. THE SILVER ANNIVERSARY MURDER reads very well as a standalone although it is in fact the 16th in the Christine Bennett series featuring an ex-nun who is now married to Jack Brooks of the NYPD and also mother of a five-year-old son. Christine has something of a reputation for helping the police solve crimes but it still comes as an unwelcome surprise when she receives a phone call from a woman who says that it is her silver wedding anniversary and suggests that Christine will enjoy investigating a body that will be found later in the day, especially when the call ends with a gun shot. Christine immediately goes to the police to get them to trace the call, which is easily done and leads them to an empty luxury apartment whose occupiers seem to have disappeared. No-one knew them well and it soon transpires that they used multiple names, but is one or both of them a victim of murder, and where is the body the caller mentioned? The trail takes Christine from New York to Madison and Portland, and back again. More soft-boiled than cozy, THE SILVER ANNIVERSARY MURDER reads more like a thriller than the mystery it really is. So much happened in the first few pages that I wondered how there could be a whole book left to come, and was very impressed that the plot continued to move ahead so quickly and maintain my interest so keenly. Whilst Christine visits the nuns with whom she once lived, and uses one of them as a sounding board for her theories, this aspect was just one of many ways she pursued the enquiry and there was certainly nothing preachy about the tale. The religious element to the mystery was so low-key that it shouldn't deter anyone from trying this book. In retrospect, I have a couple of minor quibbles about why one of the characters dropped hints rather than coming out with her thoughts on what Christine should do, and also with the plot resolution, but at the time of reading I was so caught up in the story that they didn't bother me at all. If you're in a bit of a reading slump, or are sugared-out on other cosies but not up for anything too hardboiled, then this engrossing mystery may well be just what you're looking for. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, August 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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