DEAD MAN'S ISLAND

Rating:
Summary: Wordy but not very mysterious
Review: Finished reading DEAD MAN"S ISLAND by Carolyn G. Hart. It is her first mystery with a new title character. After beginning reading the book I came across other people's critique of the book. After finishing, I agree. An elementary book with lots of words and a contrite ending. It is one they teach in writer's courses not to make. But she is selling books and I am not, so it shows you what I know.

Rating:
Summary: Not up to her normal standards
Review: This book is not like the normal Henrie O mysteries I have read. I understand that this is her first in this series. That may explain why the book just wasn't a great one?!

The Henrie O mysteries are very different from the Annie and Max Darling mysteries. Henrie O is typically a strong woman who has lived through some tough times. She is able to be a stand up type of woman for those in trouble.

In this book however, I just remember thinking several times through out the book: What? or You have got to be kidding? or For Heaven's Sake... It just didn't click together. Much of what occured in this book just seemed so not real. For an author who writes Henrie O books that are fairly well grounded, this book was a dissapointment.

Although I might read this book again because I am generally a Hart fan, I don't know that I'd suggest it to many other people. I would suggest a different Henrie O story however.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting whodunit!
Review: Wealthy, arrogant Chase Prescott invites his long-ago colleague Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins to come to his private island to try to determine who is trying to murder him. He tells her that an attempt has been made on his life and that he is determined to find the culprit. He invites anyone whom he feels had the motive and opportunity to Dead Man's Island (renamed Prescott Island by the egotistic Chase.) Henry O accepts his invitation and joins the others for a few days on the isolated, mysterious island off the coast of South Carolina. The problem she encounters is that everyone present does have a motive and that makes it difficult for her to find the culprit. The action becomes more exciting towards the end when a powerful hurricane threatens the island and murders begin to occur. The solution to the murder is a convoluted one which defies logic and which makes me wonder why Chase invited Henry O in the first place. The book is very readable, however, and gives the reader many pages of real suspense.