Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2009
224 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
It promised to be the perfect holiday with every modern convenience: exotic terraced gardens complete with an English folly, thirty-eight varieties of ice cream, and cocktails with names like "Widow’s Wink" and "Mumbay Mule." Antonia Darcy and Hugh Payne never seriously imagined they would encounter anything worse than extravagance in this idyllic setting.
But an uninvited guest at the garden party given in their honor makes Antonia his confidante. Not only does he claim to have witnessed the strangling of beautiful, wayward Marigold Leighton, he also insists it was their host Roman Songhera, the "uncrowned King of Goa," who had committed the murder.
"With nods to Agatha Christie, John Buchan, P.D. James and other mystery greats, the amiable detectives sort out motives and suspects ... Clever chapter titles echoing classic detective fiction titles add to the fun." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Deftly mixes dark humor and psychological suspense, its genteel surface masking delicious deviancy." - Kirkus Reviews
"Starred Review. Mixes Henry James's psychological insight with Agatha Christie's whodunit plotting skills ... Raichev once again triumphs." - Library Journal
"Raichev's use of characterization and allusion will keep the reader turning pages to the end." - The Oklahoman
"Except for its modern-day setting, the book could have been published during Agatha Christie's heyday, the so-called Golden Age of detective fiction, and readers who relish that period will be delighted." - The Denver Post (referring to an earlier book in the series)
This information about The Little Victim was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
R.T. Raichev is a researcher and writer who grew up in Bulgaria and wrote a university dissertation on English crime fiction. He is the author of four novels in the Antonia Darcy series and has lived in London since 1989.
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