“The Marlow Murder Club” - Robert Thorogood

 

🔦 For starters, let me tell you I enjoyed this cozy mystery so much, that I snapped up the second book in the series, am eagerly awaiting book 3, and have begun another series by Thorogood until “The Queen of Poisons” becomes available. The mystery is complex enough to be engaging, but what really drew me in was the fantastic band of characters.

🔦 Judith Potts is a modern Marple! An elderly woman pottering about her well-loved (inherited) mansion, she is utterly content with her life and wants for nothing. Judith has managed to find both wisdom and contentedness a la Miss Jane Marple. What’s more, her Marlow reminds me of St. Mary Meade. Jane is viewed as an eccentric because she revels in her solitary - though self-sufficient - life; no doubt, a doddering old maid dependent upon the goodwill of others, would’ve suited her neighbors better.

🔦 Judith uses her old age invisibility as a sleuthing superpower; she’s definitely borrowing a page out of the Jane Marple playbook. I love to see it.

🔦 Judith rapidly pulls into her orbit a sassy, middle-aged dog walker named Suzie, and oh-so-neurotic wife of the Vicar, Becks. Though the trio couldn’t be more different, they all contend with loneliness in different forms. And maybe it’s because they’re all women, but I like the spirit of collaboration between Detective Sargent Tanika Malik and Judith. It’s very unlike Miss Marple and Inspector Slack. Thorogood provides all of his main characters ample dimension. For example, Tanika is instantly relatable as a mother and wife who longs to advance in her career, all while coping with an aging parent who depends upon her, a wannabe DJ husband who stays at home with their daughter but begrudges Tanika her late nights at work, and her constant battles to prove herself at work in a male-dominated office.

🔦 TMMC is not a weak imitation of Agatha Christie. While there are certainly similar elements, this whodunit is modern and relatable.