A Clock
Shop Mystery sounded just the ticket so I grabbed
the second in this lively series of cosy mysteries.
Located in New England, the town of Orchard boasts a clock
shop, owned by Ruth Clagan who first featured in JUST
KILLING TIME. With winter approaching, Ruth is finishing
some renovations and preparing for a grand re-opening with
her employee Mark Pine in CLOCK AND DAGGER.
We learn that Ruth, a former faculty wife, inherited the
Town Hall with its fine but non-working clock tower. She
leases it to the town for a peppercorn rent and has asked
the town to fund repairs to clock and building. Petty local
ordinances however keep intruding on the business life of
all the shopkeepers and might spoil the plans for the
hall. What's a divorced girl to do but compare notes with
the handsome, friendly owner of the barber shop, Ben
Clover? Unfortunately a rather less friendly newcomer,
Beckett Green, has started a bookshop and seems intent on
taking business from other stores, like the coffee shop and
even the clock shop. Hard enough to make one clock shop
pay, but if Ruth had competition there would not be enough
trade to go around. The party ends early when Ruth
discovers a body, and the mystery gets ticking.
A wide variety of characters appear, though with a central
female character the chat tends to revolve around housework
and families rather than more exciting issues. Ruth
discovers that someone has been living a lie, and the
stumbling blocks in the way of repairing the Town Hall look
set to see it demolished. Can Ruth resolve any of these
problems, and see which contributed to the murder? This
mystery is short on forensics or gruesome details, and long
on small town atmosphere. Anyone who enjoys craft-based
cosies will be keen to add clock repair to their bookshelf
in the form of CLOCK AND DAGGER.
Julianne Holmes lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and she
serves on the boards of Sisters in Crime and Sisters in
Crime New England. This series is her first foray into
crime writing, and now she has got settled in to Orchard
I'm sure we can look forward to more fun and crimes.
Expert clockmaker Ruth Clagan has another murder on her hands in the second Clock Shop Mystery from the author of Just Killing Time. Ruth has three days to pull off four events—including the grand reopening of Cog & Sprocket, the clock shop she inherited from her grandfather—so she doesn’t have time for Beckett Green’s nonsense. The competitive owner of a new bookstore, Green seems determined to put other businesses out of business by also carrying their specialty items. He’s trying to steal Ruth’s new watchmaker, Mark Pine, not to mention block her plans to renovate the town clock tower. Ruth is already all wound up when she’s alarmed to discover Mark’s dead body. As the denizens of Orchard each chime in as to who they think the murderer is, Ruth needs to watch her back as she investigates on her own. Despite the danger, Ruth won’t stop until the killer is behind bars and serving time...
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