The Queen of Poisons, by Robert Thorogood

I am really into the covers for this series; to me, they convey the kind of mystery that is between the covers, as well as tying the stories to each other. Covers, folks, that’s what gets people to look.

Beware: alcoholism; fatphobia; disordered eating; depression.

The Queen of Poisons, by Robert Thorogood

The third book in the Marlow Murder Club series, this story takes place roughly a year after the events in the second book, Death Comes to Marlow. Elderly and eccentric Judith Potts, middle-aged and brash Suzie Harris, and just-over-forty vicar’s wife Becks Starling, have now been friends for going on two years; their lives aren’t perfect, and they occasionally get on each other’s nerves a bit, but they are always there for each other.

And so Judith and Becks are naturally the first two people Suzie calls after witnessing a murder–after all, someone else is already calling the cops, aren’t they?

Per the publisher’s blurb, the story goes thusly:

Geoffrey Lushington, Mayor of Marlow, dies suddenly during a town council meeting. When traces of aconite—also known as the queen of poisons—are found in his coffee cup, the police realize he was murdered. But who did it? And why?

The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart’s content… which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet…

The three friends soon convinced the newly-minted Detective Inspector Tanika Malik to let them help with the investigation. First order of business: find out why anyone would want to kill a man so thoroughly decent and caring.

As with the previous two books, the story is narrated mostly from the points of view of the three friends, with occasional scenes from Tanika’s or some other character’s perspective to round up the narrative.

As Judith approaches eighty, she’s a bit more obnoxious in her arrogance–not in a class sense, but in her certainty that she’s likely to be the smartest person in any room. And it doesn’t help that she generally is. She’s also more lonely and depressed that she wants to admit, to herself or anyone else; both this and her drinking are explored more in this book, and play a part in the solution of the story–though not in a straightforward manner, of course.

The youngest of the three friends, Becks is still diffident and generally a rule-follower; after helping solve two cases, her family dynamics have improved somewhat, as did her marriage for a while. Unfortunately, her monster-in-law has run through all her own money and decided to move in with Becks’s family–and burn through Becks’s money now. Colin Starling’s submissive relationship with his mother, and Becks’s difficulty in standing up to her mother-in-law, lead to the solution of one of the case’s mysteries–again, in a convoluted kind of way.

This time around, it’s Suzie who’s the most comfortable in her own skin; her brashness and what comes across as a degree of ADHD are still played as comic relief, but that aspect of the story is a lot more balanced between the three characters in this book than in the two previous ones.

DI Malik, sadly, has a smaller role in this book; it works for the story, but I hope she has a larger part again in future installments of the series. I did feel a lot of satisfaction that her erstwhile boss is mentioned exactly once, then dropped forever more.

In mysteries, it is generally accepted that when people are murdered, there must be a reason; that no matter how good and saintly the victim may appear to be at first, there will be secrets in their lives, present or past, that will explain why someone wanted them dead.

This book takes the approach that the victim was in fact one of those people everyone liked, enjoyed, and appreciated, if not downright loved; Geoffrey was conscientious, generous, dedicated, ethical, hard-working, perceptive, supportive, and kind. As everyone around him, including the people with an actual opportunity to commit the crime, share their memories of the victim with our sleuths, the case seems to stall somewhat.

But of course, when the victim is blameless, then it’s time to investigate those around him–and boy, do they all have secrets that put them at odds with good, decent Geoffrey!

One aspect of the series I particularly appreciate is how the books thread a difficult line between dealing with serious issues with sensitivity, and keeping the humorous tone going, and it does it well for the most part, Judith’s depression and alcoholism contrasted with her penchant for naked swimming and hard candy (boiled sweets), being the most obvious examples.

The friendship between the main three characters, and to a lesser degree theirs with Tanika, is lovely because it allows them all to flourish, as they all contribute their own expertise, book smarts, or life experience, as they work to figure out the how, the who, and the why of the murder. Even better is that they all support each other’s growth as each work through their own challenges and traumas.

If I have one complaint in the overall tone of the series is the many unhappy romantic relationships showcased; we have the partner who contributes nothing to the relationship or family, the partner who cheats, the partner who is emotionally abusive, and so forth. It’s depressing when the only person in the novel who had a happy marriage was the victim, who had been widowed for a good two decades, and remained faithful to his late wife until his last breath.

The novel is divided into many short chapters; in fact, almost every change in venue translates into another chapter. This gives a sense of many things happening quickly, even when that is not quite the case. It does behoove the reader not to be fooled, and to pay attention to the clues scattered through the narrative; I am on the fence on whether this is a fair play mystery or not, because some of the clues are excessively subtle, but since they are in the text…

And to be fair, the novel does play to society’s prejudices, so even though it annoyed me a bit in its cleverness, the resolution is not a Deus Ex Machina move.

Once again, the best aspects of the Golden Age of mystery are present here, and I am very much looking forward to more entries in the series.

The Queen of Poisons gets a 9.00 out of 10.