Acid Bath [Paperback]

Nancy Herndon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A professor claims his ex-wife is trying to kill him, so Elena Jarvis investigates and uncovers the man's fondness for pretty students, but when he is allegedly murdered and turns up alive, Ellen discovers the real victim--and killer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425145514
• ISBN-13: 978-0425145517
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,090,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent beginning to a series, April 16, 2000

By 

Vicki J. Strom "vjs" (Champaign, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acid Bath (Paperback)

This was an excellent mystery, and I look forward to readingmore in this series. There were twists to the plot and the story tookoff in different directions as you read further in the book. While these weren't totally unexpected, they were still highly enjoyable. And it was great fun to read--imagine try to kill someone with an exploding snail! It left me wanting to know more about the characters and ready to read the next book in the series. This is another author that I will be adding to my "to read" list. END

3.0 out of 5 stars Has it's Moments, April 10, 2009

By 

Nancy A. Fox (West Covina, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Acid Bath (Paperback)

This was a quick read. The main character Detective Elena Jarvis is interesting, and would probably be worth exploring in further novels. The mystery was interesting, if not overly taxing. The author's writing style is enjoyable and flows nicely.

The book starts off quite well with Los Santos Police Department Detective Elena Jarvis responding to a call about an attempted murder on the grounds of Herbert Hobart University. The potential victim is tenured teacher and poet Angus McGlenlevie, and the accused perpetrator is his ex-wife and chair of the Electrical Engineering Department Dr. Sarah Tolland. Dr. Tolland allegedly tried to kill her ex-husband with an exploding escargot.

After taking statements Detective Jarvis invites Dr. Tolland to join her support group for divorced women and to join her for dinner. They become friends. After Dr. Tolland's ex-husband is killed a couple of months later, this comes back to haunt Elena Jarvis since the prime suspect in the murder is her new friend Dr. Tolland who is now missing. Of course, this wasn't Elena's only lapse in judgement, she later in the novel dates a witness and potential suspect in the murder investigation.

The book really deserves 3.5 stars because there are some great moments like the exploding snail, and the discovery of the corpse, not to mention Elena's relationship with her partner Detective Leo Weitzell. The mystery is interesting, but I did have most of it figured out by the half-way point of the book. My other problem was that the female characters were given much more rounded personalities than the male characters, most of whom were caricatures. I would be willing to give another title in this series a try, but I'm not going to go out of my way to find one.