<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Call the Better Mystery Writers Again
Review: Come on people. Now I've read several mystery novels but this one is probably one of my least favorite in my collection. Basically in this story a man named Andrew Penhallow had a girlfriend whom he loved and had a child with. Andrew realized that no longer he loved that woman and carried on with his life on to marry a woman named Carla Penhallow. Carla finds out much later in the book that Andrew has a mistress who is the woman he had his first child with. Carla ends up killing Andrew because of the shock. Then she kills a car repairman in fear that he knows too much about the murder. The book mentions a ghost of the past but that's only in the first or second chapter. This ghost of the past is supposed to show up everytime there is a disaster. Well I suppose the plot was a disaster and I mean literally. Ideally in a mystery novel this one girl Kate Drago, Andrews daughter, couldn't have caused all that pain. Whatever Andrew did, Andrew did, this girl didn't have anyone to turn to. Her mother had cancer. The book then talks about two love couples that don't end up together except from where they started. I had no thought in my mind that the way Kate Drago's character was written that she could even maintain a relationship. Anyway, this Harry guy was just thrown in the book as somebody that gets killed just in case he spills the beans on Carla committing a murder. What I would have done was make the ghost the killer if it is supposed to show up evrtyime disaster strikes(no reference to the movie) and then have the detectives uncover the mystery of how the ghost did the killing. The book would have been a little more suspenseful. I'm not trying to turn this book into a horror novel but just trying to add a little more spice to it. However it was exciting in a few parts of the book that's why it gets three stars but take your time with the sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb Cotswold police procedural
Review: While driving home, Meredith Mitchell picks up a hitchhiker whom she drops off near the home of European VIP Andrew Penhallow and his family. Meredith soon enjoys the comfort of being with her lover, police superintendent Alan Markby. The next day, Andrew's wife finds her spouse murdered. Suspicion immediately falls on the hitchhiker. Alan conducts an official investigation while Meredith makes her own inquiries. Apparently, the much traveled Andrew had two families with the hitchhiker being his neglected daughter from the other side of the tracks. However, were Kate's feelings strong enough to murder her father? Alan leans in that direction, but Meredith thinks otherwise and plans to sell her lover with a different scenario. CALL THE DEAD AGAIN, the eleventh Cotswold novel, is an interesting British police procedural that, like its predecessors, adds elements of an amateur sleuth to the tale. The story line moves rather quickly, only slowing down when Alan and Meredith are doing anything except sleuthing. The characters are warm and cozy. Of major interest is the victim, who dies in the first quarter of the novel, but the revelations about his life spin the story line forward. Ann Granger provides genre fans with a fine entry to the Mitchell and Markby Cotswold series. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed as much as the others
Review: You should enjoy the book even if you haven't read any of the earlier entries in the series. Ann Granger will gently fill you in on what has gone before. Marby and Meredith's relationship moves forward by the tiniest of steps, so you won't have missed much. The murder weapon is interesting. The mystery unravels nicely. You won't be sheltered from the hard facts of life, but you won't have your nose rubbed in them, either. Personally, I think every adulterer who thinks s/he is going to get away with it should read this book. It fits the old saying about being sure that your sin will find you out. (That's not giving away much. It's obvious early on that adultery is the root of the matter.) I've always enjoyed learning that an author whose works I like shares an interest. I'm pleased that Ms. Granger chose to mention *Sprig Muslin* of all of the late Georgette Heyer's many regency romances, because that's my favorite of her books. (From the description of the cover, I'm sure that mine is a different edition, though.) For readers who are not familiar with Heyer's work, she also wrote mysteries. "Penhallow", the name of one of the characters in this book, is the title of one of Heyer's mysteries. I really, really, hate the fact that so many hardcover books have boring or ugly dustjackets compared to paperback covers. I'm pleased that this mystery has a dustjacket that fits the mood of the book. [Note to the publisher: Given the title of the book, the last line of the quoted epitaph should probably be "call the dead" instead of "all the dead".] Ann E. Nichols
<< 1 >>
| 
