The third season/series of "The Marlow Murder Club" starts on PBS Masterpiece Mystery on Sept. 6th, based in part on "The Queen of Poisons" by Robert Thorogood, the third in his Marlow Murder Club cozy mystery series. (The other storylines have been created by other writers.)
MMC member/dogwalker/radio host Suzie is conveniently present at the Marlow town council planning committee meeting when the affable mayor, Geoffrey Lushington, takes one sip of his coffee and promptly dies. Traces of aconite -- "the queen of poisons" -- are found in his cup. Who wanted the mayor dead, and why? The Marlow Murder Club -- including 77-year-old crossword designer Judith and the vicar's wife Rebecca ("Becks") -- springs into action, now granted "civilian advisor" status to the local police department by recently promoted Detective Inspector Tanika Malik.
The same things that annoyed me about the first two books in the series are also present here: Judith is "incorrigible," refusing to play by the rules and charging ahead, certain that she's right. (Admittedly, she IS often right -- and, as she says to Becks in Chapter 11, "I do hope so [that I'm incorrigible], imagine being corrigible! How boring.") The prose style is rather basic. And once again, the climactic confrontation with the killer goes on for pages -- two full chapters! -- while Judith expounds at length and in great detail about what really happened and why.
Even so, it's a pleasant, entertaining and mildly humorous read that did keep me guessing as to the identity of the killer. (It wasn't who I suspected.) And as I've said in my reviews of previous books in the series, it's nice to see stories with strong (older!) female characters! (CNBC note: Judith does not have children.)
I'm looking forward to the TV version. :)
3 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph.
This was Book #18 read to date in 2026 (and Book #4 finished in July), bringing me to 45% of my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind pace to meet my goal. :( You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."
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