4-STAR REVIEW: THE CADIEUX MURDERS by R.J. Koreto

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About The Book

The Historic Homes Mysteries: Book 3
Publication Date: October 15, 2024

The ink is still wet on the contract, but Wren Fontaine is already running into trouble as she renovates Cadieux House, a modernist masterpiece on Long Island’s exclusive Gold Coast. The home’s architect was the brilliant and eccentric Marius Cadieux, her father’s mentor, and Ezra doesn’t want Wren to change as much as a doorknob.

And the home itself comes with a dark past: In 1955, it was the site of the never-solved murder of its owner, Dennis Blaine. Cadieux himself was alleged to be having an affair with Dennis’s wife, the stunningly beautiful Rebecca. It seems like yesterday’s headlines, but then someone starts killing people with a connection to the house. The home’s new owner—bestselling novelist Bronwyn Merrick—may be using the house to launch a fictionalized account of the 1955 crime. But someone may not want to her to. Just how far will Bronwyn’s armed bodyguard go to protect her?

As Wren untangles the threads, she finds they all lead back to the house. Rebecca apparently inspired the strange, yet alluring residence, and both the home and its mistress may have caused uncontrolled emotions that led to tragedy. Wren uses all her architectural skills to decipher the hidden message Cadieux cunningly wove into the home’s design. She must think back 20 years to when, as a little girl, she met Cadieux. Deeply impressed with Wren, he gave her a clue about the house—and his unusual friendship with Rebecca. With her girlfriend Hadley at her side, Wren eventually solves the mysteries of the home and the people who lived there, develops a grudging respect for modernist architecture—and learns something about the difference between love and obsession.

Excerpt

The Review

When architect Wren Fontaine takes on a restoration project, she gathers all the information she can find in order to understand the original design. Sometimes, those efforts uncover some dangerous secrets.

The Cadieux Murders is the third book in the Historic Homes Mystery series. It is about an unsolved murder from the 1950s. Author R.J. Koreto creates a cozy mystery as the house is sold to a famous novelist and set to be occupied for the first time since the murder.

Wren’s efforts focus on understanding the house, which takes her deeper into the mind of the original architect, Marcus Cadieux. This seems necessary to better understand the people it was designed for.

As the modern-day body count rises, Wren and the cast of characters are tasked with figuring out who is threatened by the house renovation. The clues, apparently, are within the house’s design.

While this particular story didn’t resonate with me, it is no reflection of the author’s writing style. He is quite adept at orchestrating the key elements for a solid mystery.

The Cadieux Murders offers a unique insight into a family’s secrets centered around a custom-designed architectural showpiece.

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About The Author Over the years, R.J. Koreto has been a magazine writer, website manager, textbook editor, novelist and merchant seaman. He was born and raised in New York City, graduated from Vassar College, and has wanted to be a writer since reading The Naked and the Dead. In addition to his novels, he has published short stories in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, the 2020 Bouchercon Anthology and Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon. His current series features Wren Fontaine, an architect who finds mysteries in the historic homes she renovates. He and his wife have two grown daughters, and they divide their time between Rockland County, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.