How to Murder Your Mother-In-Law

Rating:
Summary: Teetering on the Brink of Caricature
Review: A rollicking, slapstick story of four absurdly awful mother-in-laws and four put upon wives. On an evening of low spirits and hard liquor, the ladies conspire to "accidentally on purpose" knock off the old girls. The delightful Ellie Haskell, loving wife to the handsome Ben, mama to the darling twins Tam and Abby, and mistress of Merlin's Court gets the action going when she plans an anniversary celebration for the in-laws -- only to find out that the actual wedding never happened. Set in the charming English seaside town of Chitteron Falls, this story is action packed, completely over-the-top, full of delightfully eccentric characters and wickedly witty dialogue. Accidents begin to befall the mother-in-laws, and when one of them dies exactly as dreamed up by the quartet, the saga goes into high gear. A delightfully far-fetched cozy mystery sure to charm.

Rating:
Summary: Teetering on the Brink of Caricature
Review: A rollicking, slapstick story of four absurdly awful mother-in-laws and four put upon wives. On an evening of low spirits and hard liquor, the ladies conspire to "accidentally on purpose" knock off the old girls. The delightful Ellie Haskell, loving wife to the handsome Ben, mama to the darling twins Tam and Abby, and mistress of Merlin's Court gets the action going when she plans an anniversary celebration for the in-laws -- only to find out that the actual wedding never happened. Set in the charming English seaside town of Chitteron Falls, this story is action packed, completely over-the-top, full of delightfully eccentric characters and wickedly witty dialogue. Accidents begin to befall the mother-in-laws, and when one of them dies exactly as dreamed up by the quartet, the saga goes into high gear. A delightfully far-fetched cozy mystery sure to charm.

Rating:
Summary: Side Splitting
Review: Absolutely the funniest book I have read in a long time. If anyone has had to deal with a Mother-in-law then this has to stike a cord. Even if your mother-in-law was one of the best. An excellent book, one you can recommend to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Side Splitting
Review: I had read two other Cannell books about Ellie Haskell, _The Thin Woman_ and _The Spring Cleaning Murders_, and liked them very much; however, I didn't think this one got going until the middle of the book. Ellie has always had self-esteem problems, but here she is a limp dishrag, letting all and sundry wipe their feet on her while she simpers martyred phrases and puts up with it. Her husband is a bit of a dimwit too, which wasn't the case in the other two books.

Once Ellie leaves the house, though, encountering the mysterious Mr. Savage and travelling on to the neighborhood pub, immediately the action picks up and Ellie becomes truer to her previous character. Then it is Dorothy Parker meets Donna Reed, as Ellie gives as good as she gets, and Cannell can keep us smiling with her witty rejoinders.

"He's round the bend, he is!" Jonas bent to pick up the dropped spoon and stood wagging it at me.

"Mr. Savage is a musician," I reproved, closing the door.

"By gum, you can say that again."

Perhaps Ms. Cannell is such a nice person that she is unable to write believable nastiness. Whatever the reason, the first half of this book falls flat, but the second half is quite entertaining, including a very sweet scene between Ellie and the mother-in-law of the title as they begin their reconciliation.

Rating:
Summary: The Universal Problem. . . .
Review: The elder Mrs. Haskell is back, only we've just discovered that legally she has no claim to the name, having never actually married Ben's Jewish father due to religious differences. Now she's determined to stay with her son, Ellie's husband Ben, until the elder Mr. Haskell makes up with her - which doesn't seem to be about to happen in a hurry. Ellie is neigh driven to distraction by Ben's martyred mother and finds out to her surprise that she isn't the only one suffering from a severe affliction of Mother-in-law. Three other women in the town have similar problems and when they meet up (quite by accident) at a local pub after Ellie had stormed from husband and home, they fantasize over how to murder their mother-in-laws to let out the tension that had built up within them. When they finish their make-believe plotting they disperse, feeling the better for it, though somewhat guilty. However, when not long afterwards the first mother-in-law dies by the method determined safest by the bitter daughter-in-laws, they are guiltily horrified. Worse, relations between Ellie and the senior Mrs. Haskell had just begun to show promise when her life is suddenly endangered! More fun with Ms. Cannell! This is another great Ellie Haskell book.

Rating:
Summary: Silly yet fun!
Review: Well, darn; bought this book hoping for ideas! Kidding; however they did come up with some goodies with naughty results.
This mystery cozy is set in England and has the funny sign-song style I love.
When four "ticked-off" daughters-in-law, get together, they find they have much in common and chat about ways to get rid of their acquired Mothers-in-law. The end result is funny, but has a scary moment or two. Plus I was guessing up to the end, which is pretty unusual, as I'm really Sherlock Nose in disguise!

Rating:
Summary: Silly yet fun!
Review: Well, darn; bought this book hoping for ideas! Kidding; however they did come up with some goodies with naughty results.
This mystery cozy is set in England and has the funny sign-song style I love.
When four "ticked-off" daughters-in-law, get together, they find they have much in common and chat about ways to get rid of their acquired Mothers-in-law. The end result is funny, but has a scary moment or two. Plus I was guessing up to the end, which is pretty unusual, as I'm really Sherlock Nose in disguise!