Rating: 
Summary: Nicely told murdery mystery,
Review: "Engaged to Die," by Carolyn Hart, is a nicely told murder mystery. I found the characters interesting, the dialogue fast-paced, and the plot read true to life. An appealing combination.John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
B.H. California
Rating:
Summary: Nicely told murdery mystery,
Review: "Engaged to Die," by Carolyn Hart, is a nicely told murder mystery. I found the characters interesting, the dialogue fast-paced, and the plot read true to life. An appealing combination. John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
B.H. California
Rating:
Summary: Nicely told murdery mystery,
Review: "Engaged to Die," by Carolyn Hart, is a nicely told murder mystery. I found the characters interesting, the dialogue fast-paced, and the plot read true to life. An appealing combination. John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures
B.H. California
Rating: 
Summary: A lovely bonbon.
Review: A lightly written mystery in Carolyn Hart's continuing Darlings series. This book is a lovely bonbon of a diversion. The heroine and her husband are supportive of one another and of the people needing their help. This time the help is needed by Annie Darling's shop assistant, who is the easy to target suspect for the murder of a painter who looked for financial security in marriage to a rich older woman. The stand-in police chief is a little too fixated on the easy answer to who to suspect for the murder. The denouement is a nice twist, but I wouldn't stay up all night reading the book.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely bonbon.
Review: A lightly written mystery in Carolyn Hart's continuing Darlings series. This book is a lovely bonbon of a diversion. The heroine and her husband are supportive of one another and of the people needing their help. This time the help is needed by Annie Darling's shop assistant, who is the easy to target suspect for the murder of a painter who looked for financial security in marriage to a rich older woman. The stand-in police chief is a little too fixated on the easy answer to who to suspect for the murder. The denouement is a nice twist, but I wouldn't stay up all night reading the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Carolyn Hart does it again!
Review: Carolyn Hart has been my favorite American mystery writer for years and Engaged to Die is another example why. Other reviewers have already described the plot so there's no need to regurgitate the same info here. Carolyn Hart is the best American mystery writer around today. Period. The main characters , Annie and Max Darling, are terrifically engaging,the setting of Broward's Rock is a perfect setting for a mystery (although the murder rate on this little island is alarmingly high!) and the writing is crisp and fresh even though the Death on Demand series has been around for about ten years now. The characters are so real and believable that I keep getting the urge to drive up to South Carolina and drop in to Death on Demand and grab a cup of coffee with Annie or get a bowl of chili at Parotti's. This is definitely not a hard-boiled series and if you are a fan of the cozy mystery genre, I have no doubt you will enjoy this book.I cannot wait for the next one. ...
Rating:
Summary: What a Great Time to Discover Carolyn Hart!
Review: Carolyn Hart, where have you been all my life? Seriously, how is it that I never spotted you on the bookshelves amongst the Sue Graftons and Patricia Cornwells and Sarah Paretskys? Well, I have now rectified that, thank goodness. Carolyn Hart is a mystery lover's dream come true. Her stories are for anyone who will confess to the guilty pleasure of reading serial mysteries (okay, and even for those of you who won't admit it, but secretly indulge nonetheless). ENGAGED TO DIE is Hart's latest installment --- the fourteenth installment, to be exact --- in the Death on Demand whodunit series featuring Annie and Max Darling, amateur detectives reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles. Annie Darling owns a bookstore, but not just any bookstore. She is the proprietor of Death on Demand, a popular venue on the island of Broward's Rock in South Carolina that specializes in selling leather-bound enigmas and paperback puzzlers. If you have ever walked into a real-life mystery bookstore like The Cloak and Dagger in Princeton, NJ, you know the sheer joy of losing yourself in the thievery, murder and mayhem oozing from the pages authored by Dashiell Hammett, Carolyn Keene or Arthur Conan Doyle. The bookstore setting is ingenious; it affords Hart the opportunity to show off her knowledge of mystery writers, new and old, great and virtually unknown. Conversations in the store between Annie and her customers are peppered with titles and authors, and the reader, if a lover of mysteries, can't help but feel that he or she is part of a special club. Henny Brawley is described as the store's best customer; each of her visits results in the purchase of several books and the exchange of mystery trivia. (Brownie points for anyone who knows the significance of the name "Hepzibah" in the mystery genre.) The bookstore even boasts a cat named Agatha, homage to you-know-who. The mystery at hand in ENGAGED TO DIE: Jake O'Neill, the young, handsome fiancé of widowed --- and wealthy --- Virginia Neville, has been murdered, his body found face down at the end of an oyster-shell path at an ocean overlook. The suspects are many, including Chloe, the young assistant who works in Annie's store and who had fallen in love with Jake. The Neville family is also not without motive. Upset by their father's bequest, which left virtually everything to Virginia, his nurse-turned-second wife, each of the Neville children could have and might have bashed in Jake's head to keep him from benefiting from the family inheritance. Max Darling, a lawyer and devoted husband of Annie, is deputized into duty by the acting police chief and begins to investigate the death. Annie decides to launch a search of her own, hoping to exonerate her co-worker. Their seemingly different paths ultimately intersect, as they become unknowing targets of the murderer. Find Carolyn Hart on the bookshelf. Read ENGAGED TO DIE. Or, better yet, start at the beginning with DEATH ON DEMAND, the first in the series, and work your way up to ENGAGED TO DIE. That's my plan. --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Entry
Review: I really enjoy the Death on Demand series. Some people find the references to other mysteries and mystery writers annoying but I find it fun as I can many times relate to the reference, adding an extra little bit of pleasure to the mystery. I particularly enjoyed this book because it features a lot of interplay between husband and wife Max & Annie Darling without focusing solely on their relationship. A wealthy "older" woman is about to announce her engagement to a much younger man when a murder occurs preventing that event from happening. A good friend of Annie's is the prime suspect for the murder and Annie & Max must, of course, step in to find the real killer. Max, in fact, is deputized to help the sheriff, a fact that irritates Annie to no end.
There are a few side issues thrown in for fun and they make for some nice diversions from the main mystery. I must say that one reason I especially enjoyed this book is that Max's mother does not play a big role - I do find her a little irritating as I find her somewhat of a stereotype airhead.
Really looking forward to the next entry in the series: "Murder Walks the Plank" and hope to see a new Henri O. mystery soon!
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the plot?
Review: I've given Carolyn Hart several chances, but this book was the last one. The setup is fine. We get the well-hated rich heiress, the Big House o' Suspects, the timetable, and so on. We get an allegedly sympathetic character (whom I didn't like) accused, presumably falsely, of the crime. We get a possible witness who knows more than she's telling. All these are well-established mystery elements. In the hands of a good writer, they're a recipe for pure pleasure. In the hands of Ms. Hart, they go nowhere. The suspect disappears, and the rest of the book consists of people bumbling around, wondering where she is, and arguing about whether she really done it. There are no clues. There is no detection. There is no puzzle. There is no plot development, other than the inevitable second murder. The solution, when it finally arrives, arrives with a resounding POOF! out of thin air: there's no logic to back it up, no explanation of how we got to that point, no reason why a different solution wouldn't do just as well. None of the alternative suspects is given any face time. The moderately-elaborate timetable is entirely irrelevant, a waste of space. The virtue of the classical mystery is in its ability to take time-honored elements and weave a new puzzle around them. Absent the puzzle, the whole thing becomes an assemblage of cliches. Ms. Hart should, perhaps, try writing romances.
Rating:
Summary: Heiress under attack
Review: Nathaniel Neville's family is none too pleased when he marries his nurse, Virginia. Subsequently he dies, and the family knows that eventually the family fortune will come to them. However, they don't count on the fact that Virginia will decide to marry again, this time to a much younger man, who is an artist. She chooses to announce the engagement at the opening of a new exhibit in the family art gallery. However, murder and mayhem get in the way, and before they know it, Max and Annie Darling are in the middle of a murder investigation. Max is officially deputized by Acting Police Chief Billy Cameron, and Annie does some sleuthing on her own. Another murder takes place, and Annie's assistant Chloe is the chief suspect. Annie becomes desperate to exonerate Chloe and she risks her own life to prove Chloe's innocence. This is another good Death on Demand mystery.
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