Naked Came the Phoenix

Rating:
Summary: An Amusingly Melodramatic Murder Mystery!
Review: "Naked Came the Phoenix" is a serial novel written by 13 top female mystery writers and it is a whole lot of fun! I was impressed at how well the chapters flowed together, and became totally absorbed in this soap opera-like mystery. "Naked Came the Phoenix" is not a serious murder mystery, and it's not supposed to be. What it is, is an immensely enjoyable tale filled with twists and turns and outlandish characters that was created for a very good cause.

The story revolves around Caroline Blessing, a congressman's wife and cellist, who has taken a trip with her very difficult and newly widowed mother, Hilda Finch, to the exclusive Phoenix Spa in Virginia. Caroline hopes that their time at Phoenix Spa will give her mother and herself a chance to heal after her father's death, and maybe even a chance to bond. Unfortunately, Caroline's dreams of a relaxing and healing vacation go up in smoke when the spa's owner, Claudia De Vries, is found murdered in one of her own mud baths!

Caroline realizes that everyone at the spa is a potential suspect and a potential victim. The spa's guests include a model-waif and her manager, an aging rock star, a short and stout grey-haired psychic, a dried-up Hollywood producer, and a beautiful and successful actress. They all have their own hidden connections to Claudia and secrets aplenty. Not to mention Claudia's own husband, the half-naked pool-boy, and the rest of the spa's staff. Everyone has something to hide, and these 13 talented authors take us along on a fast-paced and thrilling mystery filled with strange clues, red herrings, blackmail, and incest.

And when more people start turning up dead, the very likable police detective, Vince Toscana, goes into overdrive trying to find the culprit. Not only is Caroline overwhelmed by what's going on around her, but she also must deal with some crushing news about her supposedly devoted husband Douglas. Caroline resolves to take her life back into her own hands and find out what's really going on, but there is nothing that can prepare her for the staggering truth behind the murders!

"Naked Came the Phoenix" is an outrageous and exciting murder mystery that is sure to entertain. I found the first chapter, by Nevada Barr, a bit tough to wade through, but after that every other author was great. This book is just good clean fun, and if you read it with that in mind, I have no doubt that you will enjoy it enormously.

Rating:
Summary: An Amusingly Melodramatic Murder Mystery!
Review: "Naked Came the Phoenix" is a serial novel written by 13 top female mystery writers and it is a whole lot of fun! I was impressed at how well the chapters flowed together, and became totally absorbed in this soap opera-like mystery. "Naked Came the Phoenix" is not a serious murder mystery, and it's not supposed to be. What it is, is an immensely enjoyable tale filled with twists and turns and outlandish characters that was created for a very good cause.

The story revolves around Caroline Blessing, a congressman's wife and cellist, who has taken a trip with her very difficult and newly widowed mother, Hilda Finch, to the exclusive Phoenix Spa in Virginia. Caroline hopes that their time at Phoenix Spa will give her mother and herself a chance to heal after her father's death, and maybe even a chance to bond. Unfortunately, Caroline's dreams of a relaxing and healing vacation go up in smoke when the spa's owner, Claudia De Vries, is found murdered in one of her own mud baths!

Caroline realizes that everyone at the spa is a potential suspect and a potential victim. The spa's guests include a model-waif and her manager, an aging rock star, a short and stout grey-haired psychic, a dried-up Hollywood producer, and a beautiful and successful actress. They all have their own hidden connections to Claudia and secrets aplenty. Not to mention Claudia's own husband, the half-naked pool-boy, and the rest of the spa's staff. Everyone has something to hide, and these 13 talented authors take us along on a fast-paced and thrilling mystery filled with strange clues, red herrings, blackmail, and incest.

And when more people start turning up dead, the very likable police detective, Vince Toscana, goes into overdrive trying to find the culprit. Not only is Caroline overwhelmed by what's going on around her, but she also must deal with some crushing news about her supposedly devoted husband Douglas. Caroline resolves to take her life back into her own hands and find out what's really going on, but there is nothing that can prepare her for the staggering truth behind the murders!

"Naked Came the Phoenix" is an outrageous and exciting murder mystery that is sure to entertain. I found the first chapter, by Nevada Barr, a bit tough to wade through, but after that every other author was great. This book is just good clean fun, and if you read it with that in mind, I have no doubt that you will enjoy it enormously.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: A senator's wife and her mother go to an exclusive spa to try to relax. They meet several celebrities, which include a model, a movie star and an aging rock star. The spa owner is found murdered in one of the center's mud baths grasping in her dead hands a white thong. Every body in the spa is a suspect and each one has a secret to hide. Nobody came to the spa to relax. They all came because the owner had summoned them and has also been blackmailing some of her clients. Everyone has a motive but it is now time to find out who the murderer (murderers?) are.

I was attracted to this book by two selling points. One, all the proceeds from this book goes to help breast cancer charities; second, except for two of the authors, I had read previous works from the participants and have enjoyed every one. Each author contributes a chapter and then passes it to another author to continue the story. They all did a great job and made it interesting to see how they reacted to some outrageous plot threads put in the story. The story is definitely farfetched but it was fun. I applaud Laurie King for writing a decent final chapter to the mess provided by the other authors. All threads were tied and everybody could breath a sound of relief. I am not claiming this to be great literature but I thought the concept was a good idea and it all goes to a worthy cause.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT MYSTERY
Review: Naked Came The Phoenix was a book selection for two of my local reading groups because we were intrigued by its unusual format. Twelve bestselling mystery and suspense author joined together to contribute a chapter to this murder-mystery, soap-opera. The catch? Each other must pick up where the last left off and continue the story using the same cast of characters, all of who get zanier as the story progresses.

The opening chapter written by Nevada Barr sets up the story and, in my opinion, was the driest, dullest entry in the entire book. It's here that the lifeless main characters are introduced (luckily they don't stay that way!). After the recent death of her father, Caroline, wife of a big shot Congressman, agrees to spend some quality bonding time with her difficult mother at a high-end health spa. Caroline's fellow guests at the spa include an aging rock legend, a quirky psychic, a starving model and loads of other oddballs and Hollywood "it" types.

After the sloooow start, JD Robb picks up the tempo in chapter two. She breaths life into Caroline's character by bringing her down to earth in a funny little adventure brought about by hunger. She also adds a hunky pool-boy to the ever growing list of characters and kicks things into high gear by killing off the snooty spa owner!

Things get silly as each character seems to harbor some dirty secret and the murder count becomes ridiculously high as each author adds their own little twists and turns to the story and attempts to pick up where the previous author left off. A friend of mine described the characters as "manic depressives" and she was right on. Each character switches moods and personalities from chapter to chapter which only added to the sense of fun. Eventually, all dangling threads and over-the-top plot twists were neatly brought together by author Laurie King.

I'd read another book like Naked Came The Phoenix for the fun factor alone. But would I read this one again? Umm, probably not.

Rating:
Summary: A Blah Blend
Review: Nice idea, nice effort, but with a blah outcome. These writers, who are superstars in their own write, had to suppress too much of their natural talent to weave a seamless story. Don't buy, go to the library.

Rating:
Summary: A Blah Blend
Review: Nice idea, nice effort, but with a blah outcome. These writers, who are superstars in their own write, had to suppress too much of their natural talent to weave a seamless story. Don't buy, go to the library.

Rating:
Summary: All for a good cause
Review: To pay homage to the ensemble of sleuths including Agatha Christie whose combined efforts made mystery novel The Floating Admiral realized in the 1930s, editor Marcia Talley gamely rounds up twelve stellar female mystery novelists including Nervada Barr, J.A Jance, Lisa Scottoline et al to narrate a serialized murder drama with the aim of raising funds for breast-cancer patients. It revolves around erstwhile cello-ist Caroline Blessing who accompanies her mother Hilda to the exclusive Phoenix Spa at Virginia. When Claudia De Vries, owner of the spa dies brutally in a mud-bath, the shadows of paranoia emerges with suspicious characters lurking. King David - the famous rock star, Howard the director on a downslide, Ondine the waif-like model and her manager Lund with the psyhic Phyllis fill the list of possible suspects. Blackmailing, incest and subterfuges fuel the plot - and the consistent plot-line is such a hoot with the writers devilishly "back-stabbing" each other, leaving trails and clues for the next writer to continue in a logical path. The surprise ending is such a blast with Laurie King's sly wits and plot diversions. It gathers the patches of red herrings and sudden deaths into a logical puzzle. Fast, hilarious and melo-dramatic, Naked Came the Phoenix spreads infectious fun with the readers engaged in the twisty manoeuvres of the who-dun-it.

Rating:
Summary: Blending a Voice: Naked Came The Phoenix
Review: When I saw this awhile back at my local library, I was intrigued with the concept but very skeptical of the results. In this serial novel written to benefit Breast Cancer Research, Marcia Talley brought together thirteen female mystery authors together to create a serial novel. The thirteen authors are: Nevada Barr, Nora Roberts, Nancy Pickard, Lisa Scottoline, Perri O'Shaughnessy, J. A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Mary Jane Clark, Anne Perry, Diana Gabaldon, Val McDermid, Laurie R. King and the editor herself, Marcia Talley, who also adds a chapter. With that much talent and totally different writing styles and perceptions involved, I expected a choppy, uneven novel. While that does happen in a couple of places, overall the merge is very good with plenty of surprising twists and turns to keep the reader guessing all the way to the end.

The novel opens with quite a cast of characters that have brought to the very upscale Phoenix Spa in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Featured front and center is Caroline Blessing, the young wife of a recently elected congressman and her overpowering mother, Hilda Finch. Two weeks earlier, Caroline's father, Hamlin Finch died due to throat cancer no doubt because of all the angry words trapped in his throat to Caroline's thinking. Hilda is a real piece of work and always gets her way by any means possible. Hilda has strongly insisted that she come to the Spa with her and Caroline, full of resentment, has done as she asked. Hilda knows the owner, Claudia de Vries from their first year at Brown University and their relationship is clearly not the best.

Soon after introducing a number of characters, the Spa owner is found dead in a mud bath and clearly a victim of strangulation. Detective Vince Toscana, far from his beloved home in Philadelphia, is called to investigate and soon finds the fellow guests are less than helpful. Almost all of them have secrets and as rich, important people simply can't be bothered with a little problem of murder in their midst. What follows is a Colombo style movie of the week literary version with homage to Agatha Christie as the bodies begin to fall and his investigation seems to go nowhere. Caroline is forced to help against her wishes and uncovers more about her life and her past than she ever wanted to know.

Overall, this is a well-written novel and it flows from start to finish. There is the occasional glitch as one author or another takes a character off on a different tangent, but overall this book works surprisingly well. The glitches are very minor and if anything, seem to add to the work and to remind the reader that this was a serial novel in the tradition of Naked Came the Manatee and Naked Came The Stranger. If you are looking for a work that symbolizes each author's unique writing style then this novel is not for you. But if you are interested in seeing how thirteen literary voices could be blended into one style, you won't be disappointed. A bit melodramatic at times, this is still one very good read.

Rating:
Summary: Prepare to laugh and be amazed by the mystery's ingenuity
Review: When I saw this book on the bookshelf, I stopped to look at it because I'd read Naked Came the Manatee. In the same tradition as Manatee, this book is written by numerous authors; each author writes a chapter and passes it onto the next one. Since the authors don't know how the next one will develop the story, this book has many characters and plot twists.

Just when the reader thinks they like a character, a new author gets a hold of the story and then you don't like that character anymore. Or a character you don't like suddenly has reasons for their behavior, so they aren't so bad. Since there isn't any foreshadowing, there are few clues or foreshadowing to events that occur, creating an story where the reader just wants to know what's going to happened next.

Filled with blackmail, murder, deception and quirky characters, I recommend this book for a weekend read or a fun vacation book.

Rating:
Summary: A definite delight
Review: With the recent death of her father Hamlin Finch from throat cancer, Caroline Blessing decides to help her mother Hilda deal with her grief. Though she knows that reconciling their differences will be impossible because the only way to accomplish that is unconditional surrender. Still Caroline, a cellist and wife of less than one year to a first term Tennessee Congressman, takes her mother to the exclusive Phoenix Spa.

At the spa, Caroline's mother remains her usual obnoxious manipulative self though perhaps acting a bit more bizarre than usual. The owner of the spa Claudia de Vries, her mother's college roommate, behaves even weirder than Hilda does. However, Claudia's behavior becomes moot, as someone murders her. The police and Caroline conduct separate inquiries even while other patrons die.

NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX is an entertaining collaboration from thirteen of the leading female mystery writers on the market today. The story line is fun though the line up of superstars tend to void pronouncements from the previous chapters. Still, the plot seems fresh due to Caroline who is the one consistency throughout the who-done-it. For the most part the authors provided strong entries that help make NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX a likable story. What else would you expect from a who's who consisting of Nevada Barr, J.D. Robb, Nancy Pickard, Lisa Scottoline, Perri O'Shaugnessy, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Mary Jane Clark, Marcia Talley, Anne Perry, Diana Gabaldon, Val McDermid, and Laurie King.

Harriet Klausner