Charmed Circle

Rating:
Summary: Why was this book allowed to be published?
Review: I am so annoyed to have wasted my time reading this graceless novel that I feel compelled to alert potential readers to impending banality and completely cliched writing.

From stock, uninvolving characters to clunky prose: "From the very first moment they'd met at the Mill Reef Club, this pair had eyes only for each other. His chiseled Cossack cheekbones and slanting eyes complemented her more Caucasian features..." (I swear I opened the book at random to cite an example.)

This is Carol Smith's second effort and my first meeting. I can only surmise that her first effort was a superlative achievement and paved the way for this amazingly trite secondary effort. Or perhaps, since she is herself a literary agent, she has friends in the right places.

The unmasking of the murderer--the identity of whom is evident in the first one-third of the book--takes place atop the precarious roofline of London's Albert Hall. Gosh, I wonder what happens next?

There is a surfeit of well-written, engrossing novels now available at the bookstore. Don't waste your time with this embarassing clunker.

Rating:
Summary: Charmed Circle.Double Exposure
Review: I read Carol Smith's first book, Circle of Friends, and thought her second would be even better. I was sadly disappointed. A murder mystery that is dull and does not even have a murder until over half way through the book is hard to trudge through at best. The plot was thin, the characters weak and tiring. I found myself irritated for even finishing the book. If she tries this again I hope she learns from this major mistake.

Rating:
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: I read Carol Smith's first book, Circle of Friends, and thought her second would be even better. I was sadly disappointed. A murder mystery that is dull and does not even have a murder until over half way through the book is hard to trudge through at best. The plot was thin, the characters weak and tiring. I found myself irritated for even finishing the book. If she tries this again I hope she learns from this major mistake.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing account of friendships between diverse characters
Review: This book had me engrossed from almost the first page. The relationships between diverse characters from different parts of the world who once a year meet for a holiday on an idyllic Caribbean Island.

But all is now what it seems and as the years go by, the friendships grow, but the members of this little group start to die. Are the deaths anything to do with the group, or are they just random?

Carol Smith makes us care for all of these people. The elegant and kind American Judge and his ebullient and altogether charming and brilliant friend. The Southern Lady and her daughter who aren't quite as they seem. The young Doctor, who loves them all and gives encouragement and succour to all who need it, but what about her love life? Young music enthusiast, and orphan, trying t get to the top of her tree and to find real love, but so encroaching on other's relationships. And the upwardly mobile business woman who isn't quite as self contained as she seems.

All of them brought together by the magnetic Vincent and in the end find that friendship can survive almost anything.

This book is one which will have me thinking about the characters and what they might be doing now for days to come.

I thoroughly recommend it to any reader who likes to feel involved in the lives of the characters and especially who love a good whodunit with a twist.

Rating:
Summary: Charmed Circle.Double Exposure
Review: This book was also published in the U.K. under the title "Double Exposure".