By
Margaret S. Hamilton
“Old age confers anonymity,
which makes it the most effective disguise of all.” (p.16)
In the tradition of Richard
Osman’s Thursday Murder Club and Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain
Age, meet Tess Gerritsen’s Martini Club, a group of retired CIA agents
living in a small coastal Maine village.
Purity is a quiet town where
people mind their own business. Maggie Bird gossips with her retired CIA colleagues
at their monthly book club meetings and enjoys a cordial relationship with her
neighbors. In keeping with the current trend of silver sleuths investigating
murder and other crimes, when Maggie finds a body in her driveway and dodges a
professional attempt on her life, it’s time to summon her local colleagues and
get to work.
Gerritsen weaves multiple
settings, past and present, as Maggie wanders the world, addressing the fallout
of her last case in places she’s known and loved—Bangkok, Istanbul, Lake Como,
London, Rome, and Malta. Gerritsen stated in an interview that she knows these
locations well. She gets the details right, particularly the smells, and
utilizes the cinematic attributes of the settings to enhance her plot.
Gerritsen writes a crisp,
fast-paced thriller with well-placed time transitions. A second point of view
from the local acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau, grounds the narrative. I’m
looking forward to reading more from Jo’s point of view in Gerritsen’s Martini
Club sequel.
Amazon Studios is developing
The Spy Coast as a TV movie.
Readers, do you enjoy
thrillers? Writers, do you write about places you’ve never visited?
I do love thrillers, and this one sounds intriguing! As for writing about places I've never been, I've learned I need to plan a research trip to make the story feel authentic.
ReplyDeleteI loved this book and have it on my recommended list. I rarely write about any place I haven't visited - although sometimes the encounter was in the distant past.
ReplyDeleteI love psychological thrillers (the late Margaret Yorke is one of my favorite authors.) I do have some imaginary places, but they are composites of places I know. In my Jesse Damon novels, he lives in a town that is modeled after Hagerstown, MD (small city with three large prisons as major employers,) Albion, MI, (deteriorating railroad town which still has some heavy industry,) and Fairmont, WV, a place where the mountains rise quickly up from the Monongahela and the town. I've lived/worked/stayed with relatives in all of them.
ReplyDeleteI loved this book and am looking forward to the next in the series.
ReplyDeleteAs for writing about places I've never been. It's hard, and so far I've managed to schedule a research trip. Google maps do not give me enough detail!
DeleteMargaret, you're making my TBR topple! As far as setting, I've stuck to places I know well. Shari
ReplyDeleteAs always, Margaret, you bring up intriguing books.
ReplyDeleteYou’ve inspired me to check her book out. Grace Topping
ReplyDeleteAnnette, Jim, Kathleen, Kait, Shari, Susan, and Grace: thanks for commenting. Getting all the details correct for a fictional setting has always been a preoccupation of mine. I'm glad others feel the same.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds like a hoot, Margaret. CONGRATULATIONS. The manuscripts I'm writing take place over 100 years ago in a place I have only very minimally visited. Unable to risk bringing COVID + home to a loved one who is immunosuppressed, I've still not been able to travel there for research. Internet to the rescue, I hope ( ;
ReplyDelete