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Endurance Mysteries #3
Death Takes No Bribes
WHO POISONED ENDURANCE HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL JOHN HARDY?
Retired teacher-turned-sleuth Grace Kimball returns to her old haunt with Detective TJ Sweeney to investigate Grace’s former colleagues. Could one of them be a killer?
The chemistry teacher who designed a poison unit? A spurned lover or her betrayed husband? A soon-to-be wealthy widow? Sweeney and Grace have plenty of suspects. To top that off, the drama teacher at the high school is producing “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
Meanwhile, Grace’s boyfriend and editor of the Endurance Register, Jeff Maitlin, has disappeared on some mysterious errand from his past. Then, Grace gets devastating news.
Death is stalking the halls of Endurance High School, and Grace Kimball and TJ Sweeney are only a few steps ahead.
Retired teacher-turned-sleuth Grace Kimball returns to her old haunt with Detective TJ Sweeney to investigate Grace’s former colleagues. Could one of them be a killer?
The chemistry teacher who designed a poison unit? A spurned lover or her betrayed husband? A soon-to-be wealthy widow? Sweeney and Grace have plenty of suspects. To top that off, the drama teacher at the high school is producing “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
Meanwhile, Grace’s boyfriend and editor of the Endurance Register, Jeff Maitlin, has disappeared on some mysterious errand from his past. Then, Grace gets devastating news.
Death is stalking the halls of Endurance High School, and Grace Kimball and TJ Sweeney are only a few steps ahead.
- GenresMystery
253 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2017
About the author
Susan Van Kirk
26 books92 followersSusan Van Kirk's book, Death in a Ghostly Hue, has been nominated for a 2025 Anthony Award for Best Paranormal Mystery.
Susan Van Kirk was born in Galesburg, Illinois, and educated at Knox College (BA) and University of Illinois (M.Ed). She taught for thirty-four years at Monmouth High School in Monmouth, Illinois, and an additional ten years at Monmouth College.
She wrote a memoir of her teaching life and revised it in April 2026. "Mr. Vonnegut and Me (And Other Incredible Tales from a Teaching Life."
Her Endurance Mysteries include "Three May Keep a Secret," "Marry in Haste," "The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney," "Death Takes No Bribes," "The Witch's Child," and "Fabric of Lies."" Harlequin Worldwide Mystery has republished this series.
"A Death at Tippitt Pond" is a standalone cozy mystery.
The Art Center Mysteries, published by Level Best Books include "Death in a Pale Hue," "Death in a Bygone Hue," and "Death in a Ghostly Hue." The third in the series was nominated for an 2025 Anthony Award for Best Paranormal Mystery.
Van Kirk is a member of MWA and Sisters in Crime. She is past president of the online chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Susan Van Kirk was born in Galesburg, Illinois, and educated at Knox College (BA) and University of Illinois (M.Ed). She taught for thirty-four years at Monmouth High School in Monmouth, Illinois, and an additional ten years at Monmouth College.
She wrote a memoir of her teaching life and revised it in April 2026. "Mr. Vonnegut and Me (And Other Incredible Tales from a Teaching Life."
Her Endurance Mysteries include "Three May Keep a Secret," "Marry in Haste," "The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney," "Death Takes No Bribes," "The Witch's Child," and "Fabric of Lies."" Harlequin Worldwide Mystery has republished this series.
"A Death at Tippitt Pond" is a standalone cozy mystery.
The Art Center Mysteries, published by Level Best Books include "Death in a Pale Hue," "Death in a Bygone Hue," and "Death in a Ghostly Hue." The third in the series was nominated for an 2025 Anthony Award for Best Paranormal Mystery.
Van Kirk is a member of MWA and Sisters in Crime. She is past president of the online chapter of Sisters in Crime.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 29, 2017
My favorite in the trilogy. It kept me guessing! My 1st instinct was wrong, which kept me reading because I really thought I was going to be right.
July 24, 2017
This is the fourth book of Susan's that I've read and very interesting because I've been in places referenced in the book and can picture the action in my mind's eye. Mystery is my favorite genre and she has mastered the skill of plot twists. I didn't guess "whodunnit."
December 3, 2017
Susan Van Kirk, a master of the traditional mystery genre, delivers both good and bad news with her latest offering in the Endurance series, Death Takes No Bribes.
First the bad news: Van Kirk informs her loyal fan base in the “Acknowledgements” at the back of the book, that DTNB will be the final book in the Endurance Mystery line. Yes, sadly, we will read no more who-done-its with Grace, TJ and the supporting cast of Endurance, IL. This leaves some unanswered questions. Will the romance between Grace and Jeff fully bloom? Will TJ remain in Endurance, or will she move on to a large city where her considerable detective skills could be put to regular use, rather than occasionally as she helps Grace solve small-town murders? We will never know—and that saddens me, for I have come to have a crush on Grace (howbeit a literary one), and I find TJ Sweeney one of the more interest characters I have met in books.
Enough of the bad news, now for the good. Of the three Endurance Mysteries (Three May Keep a Secret and Marry in Haste being the other two), DTNB is the best. And that says a great deal, because the other two are first-rate.
In her latest mystery, Van Kirk takes the reader inside Endurance High School, where Grace taught English many years before retirement. Instead of murder in the cathedral, there is murder in the school house. If that is not enough, Grace’s love interest and newspaper editor, Jeff Maitlin, has gone off on an odyssey, worrying Grace because she doesn’t know where he is, nor why he went.
Unlike her first two mysteries, Van Kirk provides a type of character study of the murderer, but she does it with such skill and so subtly that the reader doesn’t know he or she is witnessing a psychoanalysis until the murderer is discovered at the end. Van Kirk seems to be reminding the reader that the bogyman may not be whom the evidence points to; he may be down the hall, around the corner, next door, maybe even a colleague. But that’s not all. Van Kirk also seems to be saying, ordinary might be dangerous, but eccentricity might be… Well, find out for yourself.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Death Takes No Bribes by Susan Van Kirk.
First the bad news: Van Kirk informs her loyal fan base in the “Acknowledgements” at the back of the book, that DTNB will be the final book in the Endurance Mystery line. Yes, sadly, we will read no more who-done-its with Grace, TJ and the supporting cast of Endurance, IL. This leaves some unanswered questions. Will the romance between Grace and Jeff fully bloom? Will TJ remain in Endurance, or will she move on to a large city where her considerable detective skills could be put to regular use, rather than occasionally as she helps Grace solve small-town murders? We will never know—and that saddens me, for I have come to have a crush on Grace (howbeit a literary one), and I find TJ Sweeney one of the more interest characters I have met in books.
Enough of the bad news, now for the good. Of the three Endurance Mysteries (Three May Keep a Secret and Marry in Haste being the other two), DTNB is the best. And that says a great deal, because the other two are first-rate.
In her latest mystery, Van Kirk takes the reader inside Endurance High School, where Grace taught English many years before retirement. Instead of murder in the cathedral, there is murder in the school house. If that is not enough, Grace’s love interest and newspaper editor, Jeff Maitlin, has gone off on an odyssey, worrying Grace because she doesn’t know where he is, nor why he went.
Unlike her first two mysteries, Van Kirk provides a type of character study of the murderer, but she does it with such skill and so subtly that the reader doesn’t know he or she is witnessing a psychoanalysis until the murderer is discovered at the end. Van Kirk seems to be reminding the reader that the bogyman may not be whom the evidence points to; he may be down the hall, around the corner, next door, maybe even a colleague. But that’s not all. Van Kirk also seems to be saying, ordinary might be dangerous, but eccentricity might be… Well, find out for yourself.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Death Takes No Bribes by Susan Van Kirk.
June 30, 2017
The only disappointing thing about reading Death Takes No Bribes is knowing it is the final mystery in this enjoyable trilogy. Author Susan Van Kirk, a retired English teacher from a small town in Illinois, knows of what she writes in telling the adventures of her main character Grace Kimball (a retired English teacher from a small town in Illinois). This time Van Kirk and her main character move into a domain that they know well -- the local high school. The bodies actually start to fall (sometimes literally) as the school puts on the theater production Arsenic and Old Lace. Grace finds herself in the middle of the investigation with her friend and local police detective TJ Sweeney. Recurring characters that we have enjoyed in the series also reappear. It's an engaging mystery and a satisfying end to the trilogy -- though I wouldn't mind seeing the characters find they way back in another volume sometime down the road!
January 11, 2018
Retired English teacher Grace Kimball is shocked when the high school principal is found murdered in his office. She had always found him likeable and competent, but there do seem people with a motive for the killing. Her neighbor, friend, former student and the town's chief investigator TJ knows that she won't be able to keep Grace out of the investigation, but neither of them expect the second killing. As though Grace's part-time job at the local newspaper wasn't enough to keep her busy, she's also trying to come to terms with the disappearance of the editor, her new boyfriend. But even his return can't keep her mind off the murder. The author indicates that this will be the last of this three-book series--too bad.
June 27, 2017
I enjoyed reading this well-written mystery about a high school principal who was killed at his school. The main character (like the author) was a retired teacher and the cast of characters are well-drawn. One of her best friends was a female detective who periodically has to remind her to stop trying to play detective and lets the cops find the killer. Many of the characters seem to have a motive in this whodunit, so the readers gets to figure it out along with the main character. The conclusion was exciting, with the teacher being chased by the killer. Will she get out from the underground auditorium alive? You’ll have to read this cozy mystery to find out.
February 22, 2021
I had read and given five stars to a previous entry in this series, so I was a bit disappointed not to like this one better. It isn't a bad book, but there were two areas that bothered me. In several places, there were long stretches of description, in one instance of all the buildings on the drive between two places, that slowed the story down for no good reason. My biggest complaint, though, was that the author skipped right over the climax of the mystery plot, sending Grace away beforehand and stopping the action at the point where T.J. was injured. Explaining what happened next was left for later, in conversation, and telling instead of showing is never as effective.
April 14, 2019
Death Takes No Bribes is a delightfully rendered cozy mystery that sends protagonist Grace Kimball back to school--the high school where she used to teach, that is. The third installment of Van Kirk's Endurance Mysteries will satisfy the cozy fan's appetite for a twisty tale involving friends, lovers, former colleagues ... and poison.
June 16, 2017
Very enjoyable conclusion to Van Kirk's Endurance mystery series. As a high school English teacher, I found many of the characters to be relatable, even the drama teacher! Anxious to see where Van Kirk's writing takes her next.
March 26, 2018
This was the last book in the series but the first that I read. I plan on reading the others in the series. The author was spot on in her description of teacher evaluations. I really enjoyed the writing style and the characters. Too bad it was the last in the series.
June 30, 2019
Another excellent read...
I honestly love this book. I have ordered all of the e-books. I cannot wait to read the rest of them.
I honestly love this book. I have ordered all of the e-books. I cannot wait to read the rest of them.
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September 2, 2021Categories
Mystery & Detective
Miniseries
An Endurance Mystery
Mystery & Detective
Miniseries
An Endurance Mystery
May 1, 2023
Love these books in the series. Something fun new to read about. Great writer.
May 10, 2026
Another great book! Can't wait to hear what Jeff's story is.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews