Devil's Breath

Written by G. M. Malliet

Narrated by Michael Page

When the body of the glamorous film star Margot Browne washes ashore, Max's former colleague, Patrice Logan, requests his help. It's a perfect closed-circle murder: Margot must have been killed by one of the actors, stylists, scriptwriters, or second-tier royalty aboard the yacht. Patrice suspects the yacht's owner, a playboy film director she's been keeping tabs on for smuggling, but Max isn't so sure. During his investigation, Max uncovers secrets about the star's life that make him wonder if Margot was killed to help keep her lurid past in the past. As Max continues his investigation though, he uncovers a host of motives, and it seems that Margot wasn't the only person on board with a secret to keep.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media Audio
• Release date: Apr 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781520067940

G. M. Malliet

G. M. MALLIET's Death of a Cozy Writer received the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and was named one of the best books of 2008 by Kirkus Reviews. It went on to earn nominations for Anthony, Macavity, and Left Coast Crime awards. The first books in the Max Tudor series—Wicked Autumn, A Fatal Winter, Pagan Spring, and A Demon Summer—also were nominated for the Agatha Award. She and her husband live in Virginia and travel frequently to the UK, the setting for many of her stories.

Reviews for Devil's Breath

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

G M Malliet writes a lovely story with quotes and plots from Shakespeare running throughout the tale. I just wish that the grammar matched these lofty aspirations. My main gripe is the use of raise for people, one rears children and raises animals. Malliet presents the cast of characters with great ceremony and detail, the story falls into a staged play many times. I love Max's method of questioning the possible suspects. To throw the readers and Max off balance, Patrice, Max's ex-lover, enters the stage. Margot Browne, an old, fading actress falls off a yacht, but she has been murdered before the push overboard. Patrice, now nearing the end of her pregnancy, has been undercover searching suspected drug trafficking on the yacht. The story twists and turns before the final curtain call.

[aztwinmom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Max Tudor is sent by MI5 to help DC Cotton investigate the death of an aging actress. He leaves Awena and baby Owen at home and is off to solve an almost "locked room" mystery. Margot, the murdered actress, was thrown off a yacht and everyone involved is suspect. Is it related to drug smuggling, jealousy, or something else altogether? Once again, G.M. Mallet has written an enjoyable mystery with wonderful characters and a cozy setting. I look forward to the next in this series (and hope it will be in his home town with his parishioners and Awena and Owen).

[debkrenzer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You would think that with a body washed ashore from a private yacht from a private party that there would not be that many suspects. That's where you would be wrong. The suspects are coming out of the woodwork in this book. Not only could the reason for the death be the personality or anything to do with the glamorous film star whose body was found washed ashore, there are other things going on with this yacht.The more questions put to the people on this boat, the more things that come to light. The film star could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are a lot of strange characters on board the yacht and that doesn't even take into account the crew. I found this to be pretty entertaining, enjoyable and it definitely kept me guessing. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

[katebaxter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sixth in series, this is another fine offering of author G.M. Malliet in her Father Max Tudor Mystery series. However, this one does stray from the charming village of Nether Monkslip and Father Max's dear family. On the beach of nearby Monkslip-super-Mare, a body washes ashore. Turns out, the deceased is a former Hollywood starlet who ended up overboard from her producers magnificent yacht, anchored just off the shoreline. There's a cast of many characters, all of whom have motive enough to do in the Diva. Can Father Max and his team figure it all out before the yacht sails with the outgoing tide?Synopsis (from book's dust jacket):Agatha Award-winning author G. M. Malliet has charmed mystery lovers, cozy fans, and Agatha Christie devotees with her critically acclaimed mysteries featuring handsome spy-turned-cleric Max Tudor.In The Haunted Season, Max’s former life as an MI5 agent caught up with him, threatening his newfound happiness with Awena and baby son Owen. Realizing there is no escape from his past, Max, with his bishop’s tacit permission, has offered his services to MI5 on an as-needed basis.And in Devil’s Breath, it’s time for Max to follow through. The body of glamorous film star Margot Browne has washed ashore from a luxury yacht and Max’s former colleague Patrice Logan wants his help to find the murderer.It’s a perfect “closed circle” murder since victim Margot must have been killed by one of the actors, stylists, screenwriters, or second-tier royalty aboard. Patrice suspects the yacht’s owner, a playboy film director she’s been keeping tabs on for smuggling, but Max isn’t so sure. Max and DCI Cotton interview the suspects as they loll about one of the luxury hotels dotting the waterfront. The investigation into Margot’s lurid past uncovers a host of motives—it seems she was not the only person on board with a secret they’d kill to keep.

[stewartry · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What a pity. I bought the first book of this series from Audible a while back, and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I was happy to grab this sixth book on Netgalley. And it was a slog.Over and above almost everything else, the book drove me crazy with constant "accidental" puns. "The kitchen of a high-end restaurant is a pressure cooker—no pun intended." "[The chef] would throw him in the soup, if you’ll pardon the expression". "The chef will spill the beans soon enough—sorry, what an appalling play on words." And so on. And on. I seem to keep using the comparison to salt a lot lately: some is usually good, but more is never better. There is so much more in this book that I wanted to smack someone. It might not have been so bad if, every single time, whoever used the pun didn't also apologize for it. Something else that annoyed me, perhaps more than it should have, was the effortless-seeming massive success of the main character's wife. I seem to remember not being overly fond of Awena, the pagan expert in just about everything who ends up marrying the priest… I think it was largely disbelief in and discomfort with the concept of the pairing; again, I read the first book some time ago, but I vaguely recall some derision or mockery of Christianity from the pagan community, which is apparently more acceptable than derision or mockery of other belief systems in much the same way that it's okay to make fun of white men and no other group. So the "opposites attract" situation with the two of them seemed very much off, but what irked me more was that Awena seems to have become England's Martha Stewart. (Nigella Lawson without the charm?) She has a tv show, for which she dictated all the terms to suit her and her schedule so that she could continue to be the same domestic goddess. The chef at Buckingham Palace is using her recipes. Yay. Towards the end of the book Max thinks complacently that, as usual, Awena had been right about the solution to the case – when in fact she had said something very specific about the killer which was the opposite of true. For a character who didn't even make a firsthand appearance in the book, she bugged me deeply.Even apart from these quibbles, I just didn't enjoy the writing this go-round. There were echoes – the exact same wording used at least a couple of times within a short period. The idea that our priest Max's police partner was making notes on their cases to do a Watson later was meta, but not in a good way – it brought up the same old question of confidentiality, of propriety, and about the author's point of view of her own writing when Max muses that their cases would "qualify … only as potboilers". Hmf. The drug aspect of the case struck me as simply absurd. "And then one night the sous- chef ran out of the icing sugar he needed to decorate his pastries. And unknowingly, he used cocaine powder from the stores in the safe room." After a certain point my patience had dried up, to the point that a slight to Marilyn Monroe pushed several of my buttons. The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

[newsieq · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Max Tudor, a clerical sleuth who is also former MI5, joins Inspector Cotton in investigating the shipboard death of aging American movie star Margot Browne. They’re joined by a former MI5 colleague of Max’s, Patrice Logan. Max and Patrice have “history.” The possible suspects were all aboard a multi-million-dollar yacht, Calypso Facto, owned by a movie producer. Most of the suspects were at least peripherally involved in the movie business and have egos corresponding to that.G M Malliet does a great job of introducing all the main characters early in the book – very reminiscent of Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand stories – and then letting the investigators get on with the business of solving the murder(s). I can’t recall recently reading a mystery, especially one that could very well be classified as “cozy” (in the very best sense of the word), that was so laser focused on the investigation. There are mentions of Max’s new wife and baby son, but they’re not present. Only those important to the plot are present. There are no sophomoric romantic entanglements, rambling internal dialogue, or peripheral crap-ola that seems to occupy so much space in today’s mysteries.G M Malliet is among the best “new” mystery authors in the business today. She ranks right up there with Susan Wittig Albert and Carolyn Hart – and that is great company to be with, in my estimation.

[diana.hauser · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

DEVIL’S BREATH: A MAX TUDOR MYSTERY is written by G. M. Malliet. The title is Book #6 in the Max Tudor Mystery series.Handsome, charismatic and thoughtful, former MI5 agent and presently an Anglican priest of St. Etwold’s Parish in Nether-Monkslip, is Max Tudor. After his work in solving several murder mysteries with DCI Cotton, Max comes out of espionage retirement and offers his services to MI5 on an as-needed basis.Max is called in to assist DCI Cotton and MI5 undercover agent, Patrice Logan, in solving a very high-profile case.The body of film star, Margot Browne, has washed ashore from a luxurious yacht anchored off-shore of Monkslip-super-Mare. Among the passengers of directors, stylists, actors, pseudo-royalty and crew, a murderer lurks.The map of the village of Nether-Monkslip, the cast of characters (there are many and it helps to refer to this ‘cast’), the intricate plot, the interesting characters and locations - all make for a vey good read. ****