Paradise Café Mysteries: Book 4
Publication Date: March 30, 2024
March roars in and Charlotte Frayne, P.I., receives a letter requesting her services to prevent “a grave miscarriage of justice.”
The sender, Miss Olivia Brodie, is an elderly resident in the Toronto House of Industry (the Poor House) who claims she witnessed two men on a nearby street, behaving in a suspicious manner. After learning that two Black teenagers have been charged with burglary on that same street, she is convinced the men she saw are the true culprits.
Separately, Charlotte is hired by a Mrs. Emmeline Larkin, a woman from the opposite end of society’s hierarchy, who says she is missing some precious jewelry. She fears the thief may be a member of her own social circle, possibly from the influential women’s club to which she belongs.
Investigating what seems at first like disparate cases takes Charlotte back to events from Toronto’s history, and she discovers a time when there was, indeed, grave injustice.
When the winds of March blow, you never know what will happen. And so it was true for Charlotte Frayne, private investigator with T. Gilmore and Associates in March Roars by Maureen Jennings. Two cases have arisen that need Charlotte’s private investigatory expertise. The first case involves two young black boys who have been found guilty of theft and attacking their victim physically. Both have been sentenced, but an eyewitness living in the poorhouse swears they’re innocent. The second case involves a wealthy widow whose jewelry she fears has been stolen.
Besides dealing with these cases, Charlotte has a lot on her plate, including her ailing Gramps and the possibility of meeting her fiancé’s children for the first time. Charlotte, though, doesn’t hesitate to get involved in her cases and leaves no stone unturned as she searches out and follows up on clues across Toronto wherever they may lead. No private investigator gets very far without the capable assistance of a police officer, and in this case, Charlotte’s reliable and helpful officer and friend is Detective Jack Murdoch.
As Charlotte seeks to prove the boys’ innocence and deal with the eccentric widow to find her missing jewelry, new clues from each case continue to come to light, leading Charlotte and Jack to believe the two cases might actually be related. Charlotte and Jack’s excellent and compassionate sleuthing opens doors that might not have been possible otherwise. Charlotte’s Gramps, along with their cohorts at the Paradise restaurant, are a foundation Charlotte relies heavily on in her exciting but sometimes perplexing and even sometimes dangerous line of work.
Ms. Jennings does a masterful job unfolding and blending these two cases as Charlotte and Jack work seamlessly together, each providing the other with vital information to ultimately discover the truth to solve both cases. Nothing flashy here. Charlotte Frayne is the kind but dogged private investigator who “gets her man” while managing to successfully juggle work, family, and friends.
An enjoyable and comfortable detective novel, March Roars cleverly blends what appears to be two diametrically opposed cases using good, solid storytelling and world-building with believable, relatable, and likable characters.
Maureen Jennings is best known for the Detective Murdoch books, which have been adapted into the long-running television series, Murdoch Mysteries. This has now aired in over one hundred and forty territories. She is also the author of the Tom Tyler series, the Christine Morris series, and the Paradise Café series. This, the most recent work, features her latest protagonist, Charlotte Frayne. Her books have been translated into many other languages, including Polish, Korean, French, German, Italian, and Czech. Jennings was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from Heritage Toronto in 1998 and the Grant Allen Award for ongoing contribution to the genre in 2011. She was awarded the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada’s Grand Master Award and has received eight nominations for best novel and best short story of the year. Jennings was born in the UK and now lives in Toronto with her husband, photographer Iden Ford, and her dog, Murdoch.
