Breaking the Circle

Why would someone kill two mediums? That’s the mystery confronting pioneering archaeologist, anthropologist, and folklorist Margaret Murray in Trow’s solid sequel to 2021’s Four Thousand Days. In 1905, Margaret’s retired Scotland Yard detective friend, Edmund Reid, alerts her to the bizarre case of Muriel Fazakerley. Muriel, who used the stage name Madame Ankhara, was found dead face-down in a bowl of mulligatawny with a black feather inserted in her mouth. Reid balks at the coroner’s verdict of natural causes, given that the feather was obviously placed in the mouth post-mortem, likely following a fatal poisoning, and he seeks Margaret’s expertise as to its potential significance. The authorities take Reid’s suspicions more seriously after the death of Evadne Principal, who was given cyanide before being bashed over the head for good measure after agreeing to give a private reading to an unidentified client. Evadne was found with a tarot card in one hand. Along with another real-life figure, Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, Margaret and Reid investigate the apparently related deaths. Trow makes Murray an eccentric but believable detective. Elizabeth Peters fans will hope she has a long a run. (Jan.)