Rating: 
Summary: Earlene Fowler just keeps getting better and better!
Review: "I'm going to kill you, Benni Harper." Benni's gone and done it again.....gotten herself mixed up in a murder mystery. During the annual Day-after-Thanksgiving barbeque at Benni's childhood home, a body is discovered. It's up to Benni to figure out who among the 200+ relatives and friends is a murderer. This book is the fifth in a series written by Earlene Fowler. The writing is witty, crisp and realistic. Benni is every bit as feisty and sarcastic as in the first book FOOL'S PUZZLE. I highly recommend this series - although each book stands on its own, it's best to start from the beginning. I am anxiously awaiting the next book in the series!
Rating:
Summary: Earlene Fowler just keeps getting better and better!
Review: "I'm going to kill you, Benni Harper." Benni's gone and done it again.....gotten herself mixed up in a murder mystery. During the annual Day-after-Thanksgiving barbeque at Benni's childhood home, a body is discovered. It's up to Benni to figure out who among the 200+ relatives and friends is a murderer. This book is the fifth in a series written by Earlene Fowler. The writing is witty, crisp and realistic. Benni is every bit as feisty and sarcastic as in the first book FOOL'S PUZZLE. I highly recommend this series - although each book stands on its own, it's best to start from the beginning. I am anxiously awaiting the next book in the series!
Rating: 
Summary: Benny is too self-centered.
Review: Although this is a soft-boiled, fun series, I find that the protagonist is too self-centered and whiny. The fact that she is the only person who believes that her ex-brother-in-law, Wade, is innocent of two murders goes a little ways in redeeming her, but not far. As for the rest of the characters, I always enjoy books like this with large families that are close and stick together to help their own. The festitives are fun, the characters are wonderful, and this book hits the ground running and doesn't stop - despite the fact that two young people were murdered, and Benni puts herself right in the middle of finding out who did it.
Rating:
Summary: Benny is too self-centered.
Review: Although this is a soft-boiled, fun series, I find that the protagonist is too self-centered and whiny. The fact that she is the only person who believes that her ex-brother-in-law, Wade, is innocent of two murders goes a little ways in redeeming her, but not far. As for the rest of the characters, I always enjoy books like this with large families that are close and stick together to help their own. The festitives are fun, the characters are wonderful, and this book hits the ground running and doesn't stop - despite the fact that two young people were murdered, and Benni puts herself right in the middle of finding out who did it.
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing and Sweet
Review: As usual, Earlene Fowler invites us into her story with quick-witted dialog and characters drawn with razor-edged believability. Inasmuch as it's sometimes difficult to discern her work as mystery or romance, the blend is pleasing and effective. As the reader, I found myself trying to guess not only "whodunit" but also the conclusion to the numerous forays into new relationships pursued by the characters. I was particularly fond of Fowler's decision to form a romantic link for Grandma Dove, a woman in her 70s, because it challenges the reader to accept that romance is not dead after a certain age. Among the humorous (and often balanced) male-bashing and details of the disciplines of photography and cattle castration were poignant reflections on the complexities of family and marital relationships as well as on the roles of women and the aging. The overall result (all murder and motives aside) was an amusing and sweet story.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters, but some irritating techniques
Review: Earlene Fowler has peopled her Bennie Harper series with plenty of enjoyable small-town characters and an authentic, humorous, feet-on-the-coffeetable ambiance. Two things, though, were enough for me to lop off some stars in my rating. I took off one star for the irritating practice of mentioning an event several times throughout the book--in this case, a "hot" date between Benni's best friend and her cousin--and then having the event happen sometime out of the time frame of the book. Unfair, annoying, and unnecessary, near as I can tell. I took off another star because a young photographer gave Bennie an album of her pictures on page 13. When the photographer is subsequently killed, I waited--and waited--and waited--for her to finally remember the album and look at it. It's one of those times when you want to shout at the character for being such a numbskull. On page 289, I could finally rest easy. I love San Celine; I think its inhabitants are a lot of fun, so much so that I resented being tripped up by the author and reminded that this is, after all, a manufactured story.
Rating:
Summary: A mystery in the midst of family ties and letting go.
Review: Earlene Fowler manages to deal with tender and poignant family struggles as well as giving the reader an exciting whodunnit. Benni has to learn to let go of her past and move on, allow Dove her own life as well as be loyal to family members. These are things all people experience and will be able to identify with as they read. A good story that has humor as well as heartbreak.
Rating:
Summary: A mystery in the midst of family ties and letting go.
Review: Earlene Fowler manages to deal with tender and poignant family struggles as well as giving the reader an exciting whodunnit. Benni has to learn to let go of her past and move on, allow Dove her own life as well as be loyal to family members. These are things all people experience and will be able to identify with as they read. A good story that has humor as well as heartbreak.
Rating:
Summary: great, fun, fast read
Review: I love all of Earlene Fowler's books. The Benny Harper series is a great one to read at the beach. Fun, Light mysteries, that don't give you a headache trying to figure it out. You feel like Benny and her husband are old friends dropping by for a visit.
Rating:
Summary: great, fun, fast read
Review: I love all of Earlene Fowler's books. The Benny Harper series is a great one to read at the beach. Fun, Light mysteries, that don't give you a headache trying to figure it out. You feel like Benny and her husband are old friends dropping by for a visit.
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