<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Unlikely premise
Review: At long last Annie Laurance and Max Darling are married, in a ceremony which is a compromise between Max's mother Laurel's "far-out" ideas and Annie's desire for a simple, dignified ceremony. That all rings true, but what happens next does not. A murder is committed and a likely suspect disappears and suddenly the inhabitants of the island are enticed into a city of tents, divided up into men's and women's quarters from which they are to launch a search for a missing woman. It is difficult to imagine that such a thing would happen (why can't they search during the day and stay in their own homes at night?) and even more difficult to believe that a newly-married couple would fall for such a scheme. Max's mother Laurel provides some comic relief in the book, but her occult-loving friend Ophelia is a just a bit over the top. Let's come back down to earth, Mrs. Hart, and return to the formula which made you successful, the Agatha Christie-like mystery solved by the deductive reasoning of the heroine. Annie's solution to the case comes as almost a minor event compared to the other things which are going on in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Unlikely premise
Review: At long last Annie Laurance and Max Darling are married, in a ceremony which is a compromise between Max's mother Laurel's "far-out" ideas and Annie's desire for a simple, dignified ceremony. That all rings true, but what happens next does not. A murder is committed and a likely suspect disappears and suddenly the inhabitants of the island are enticed into a city of tents, divided up into men's and women's quarters from which they are to launch a search for a missing woman. It is difficult to imagine that such a thing would happen (why can't they search during the day and stay in their own homes at night?) and even more difficult to believe that a newly-married couple would fall for such a scheme. Max's mother Laurel provides some comic relief in the book, but her occult-loving friend Ophelia is a just a bit over the top. Let's come back down to earth, Mrs. Hart, and return to the formula which made you successful, the Agatha Christie-like mystery solved by the deductive reasoning of the heroine. Annie's solution to the case comes as almost a minor event compared to the other things which are going on in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best
Review: I normally love the Death on Demand series. But I didn't really like this book. I wanted to like it. But it didn't hold my interest. I have to admit I skimmed parts and read the end.
Rating:
Summary: Not her best
Review: I normally love the Death on Demand series. But I didn't really like this book. I wanted to like it. But it didn't hold my interest. I have to admit I skimmed parts and read the end.
Rating:
Summary: Just sufficiently more fun than it is irritating
Review: This is a nice fluffy cozy, deeply annoying in spots, but on the whole I must enjoy this series because I find I keep buying it. Annie Laurence owns "Death on Demand" bookshop, which is what every single one of Carolyn Hart's readers would do for a living if given the chance. There is one cat but she doesn't figure centrally. There's lots of good coffee. There's Annie's handsome, rich and adoring husband Max. There's an investigating officer so preposterously stupid it's astonishing he can walk around without an assistant reminding him to breathe every twenty seconds. There are about three references to the protagonist's (and, I suspect, author's) favourite mystery novels and writers per page. Although this is annoying, when the action gets slow you can amuse yourelf by counting them. Yet all said and done, this is a fun piece of candy-floss to while away a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Just don't go looking for any eternal verities. Or even temporary ones.
Rating:
Summary: Just sufficiently more fun than it is irritating
Review: This is a nice fluffy cozy, deeply annoying in spots, but on the whole I must enjoy this series because I find I keep buying it. Annie Laurence owns "Death on Demand" bookshop, which is what every single one of Carolyn Hart's readers would do for a living if given the chance. There is one cat but she doesn't figure centrally. There's lots of good coffee. There's Annie's handsome, rich and adoring husband Max. There's an investigating officer so preposterously stupid it's astonishing he can walk around without an assistant reminding him to breathe every twenty seconds. There are about three references to the protagonist's (and, I suspect, author's) favourite mystery novels and writers per page. Although this is annoying, when the action gets slow you can amuse yourelf by counting them. Yet all said and done, this is a fun piece of candy-floss to while away a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Just don't go looking for any eternal verities. Or even temporary ones.
Rating:
Summary: One wedding, one murder, one missing and one abduction
Review: This is the fourth book in Carolyn Hart's "Death on Demand" series. As with the other books in the series, it's full of references to fictional sluethes (all pre-1988 but still fun for mystery fans). Annie and Max finally get married. Before they can honeymoon, Annie's assistant Ingrid is abducted and a dead man is found in her house. The resulting search is so far fetched as to be a farce in many ways.This isn't one of Hart's best books. My primary peeve is that she forshadows the murderer early and often. Also, for a book with the word "Honeymoon" in the title, there's very little romance. I'm also getting really tired of the character of Posey. Annie deserves a more worthy adversary.
Rating:
Summary: One wedding, one murder, one missing and one abduction
Review: This is the fourth book in Carolyn Hart's "Death on Demand" series. As with the other books in the series, it's full of references to fictional sluethes (all pre-1988 but still fun for mystery fans). Annie and Max finally get married. Before they can honeymoon, Annie's assistant Ingrid is abducted and a dead man is found in her house. The resulting search is so far fetched as to be a farce in many ways. This isn't one of Hart's best books. My primary peeve is that she forshadows the murderer early and often. Also, for a book with the word "Honeymoon" in the title, there's very little romance. I'm also getting really tired of the character of Posey. Annie deserves a more worthy adversary.
Rating:
Summary: One wedding, one murder, one missing and one abduction
Review: This is the fourth book in Carolyn Hart's "Death on Demand" series. As with the other books in the series, it's full of references to fictional sluethes (all pre-1988 but still fun for mystery fans). Annie and Max finally get married. Before they can honeymoon, Annie's assistant Ingrid is abducted and a dead man is found in her house. The resulting search is so far fetched as to be a farce in many ways. This isn't one of Hart's best books. My primary peeve is that she forshadows the murderer early and often. Also, for a book with the word "Honeymoon" in the title, there's very little romance. I'm also getting really tired of the character of Posey. Annie deserves a more worthy adversary.
<< 1 >>
|
