A Catered Wedding (Mystery with Recipes, No. 2) [Hardcover]

Isis Crawford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2004

Leeza Sharp is getting ready to have the wedding of her dreams. She's got a USD25,000 dress (gorgeous and made to order), a rich Estonian fiance (head of a multimillion dollar caviar empire) and a four-star menu (planned by none other than Bernadette and Libby Simmons). Never mind that she's not really in love with her boring, bland groom-to-be. This is about as good as it gets for a country girl from Missouri. But the dream wedding quickly turns into a nightmare. Just hours before she's scheduled to walk down the aisle, Leeza takes an arrow to the chest - and drops dead. Now Libby and Bernadette have more, on their minds than pouring Cristal and cutting up wedding cake: they've got an archery inclined killer to find. The sisters suspect that Leeza may have been involved in a caviar-switching scam, which would give several people a motive for murder. But the chef/sleuths aren't about to put all their fish eggs in one basket there's also the up-for-grabs fiance's formerly frumpy assistant, the groomsman with the wandering hands, and, of course, the bereft almost - husband himself. It's up to Bernadette and Libby to get to the bottom of it before the killer can hit another bull's-eye...

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . above the common run of cozies."
-- Publishers Weekly (Publisher's Weekly ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758206852
• ISBN-13: 978-0758206855
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,506,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars AN UNDERDONE CULINARY MYSTERY, March 19, 2005

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Catered Wedding (Mystery with Recipes, No. 2) (Hardcover)

Presented as a culinary mystery "A Catered Wedding, " never quite gels. At least for this reader. Too many grammatical errors cry for an able editor. "She weren't going into a tunnel."? When errors are this obvious it's more than distracting.

Characters, especially sisters Libby and Bernie Simmons are never quite fleshed out. One's usual response is to click her tongue on the roof of her mouth, while the other slides her ring up and down on her finger. Unless these are explained as nervous tics, one wonders why these movements occur so frequently. Perhaps the characters that best come alive are two elderly sisters, Gertrude and Eunice, who often sport outrageous garb and dye their hair in Crayola colors.

Those qualifications aside, this is "A Mystery with Recipes" that never boils but simply simmers from the opening pages when about-to-be bride Leeza Sharp is done in by an arrow through the chest. Libby and Bernie have been hired to cater the wedding which, for obvious reasons will not take place.

Leeza's groom was to be Jura Raid, a wealthy caviar dealer, some years the bride's senior but able to give her everything she ever wanted. Jura shares vending roe with his two brothers, Ditas and Joe, both of whom are dark and suspicious. Now, as most agreed Leeza was unpleasant, nonetheless, she did not deserve such a sudden departure.

So, abetted by their father, Sean, a retired police officer who is now confined to a wheelchair, Bernie and Libby take it upon themselves to find the murderer. Along the way they involve Marvin, pudgy son of the local undertaker who has warm feelings for Libby, and Esmeralda, Jura's right hand woman who has more than warm feelings for him.

Rather than building suspense the narrative tends to bog in dialogue and preposterous undertakings on the part of Bernie and Libby. The conclusion is rather abrupt. As the sisters breathed sighs of relief so did this reader.

- Gail Cooke

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete and disappinting story., April 19, 2005

By 

Ann Amantea (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Catered Wedding (Mystery with Recipes, No. 2) (Hardcover)

Iwould not waste money on buying this book. Borrow it from the library if you think you have to read it.

The editing is poor to the point of distraction. The characters never really firm up and at the end there are many loose ends that go unsolved. Even the last recipe seems to have a missing ingredient.

The story line probably was a good idea; I kept waiting for something to happen, but it just never did.

Ann Amantea

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Likable Sisters, April 7, 2006

By 

Mystery Girl "Zuzi" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Catered Wedding (Mystery with Recipes, No. 2) (Paperback)

This is the second novel in the series and I won't go through the story since you probably know it by now from reading the other reviews. I like the sisters, their totally different personalities makes it refreshing. I did not guess the murderer, which is saying something, because I'm usually pretty good at that so it was a plus. The only problem I had was one that has been mentioned and that was the poor grammatical errors throughout the book. You never know if it is the writer or the publisher's fault. I would like to ask Ms. Crawford to please find another word in place of "snort" or "snorted." I found it annoying that so many people were "snorting" their way through conversations......"he snorted," "she snorted,"...etc., etc. I think there were at least two "snorts" per chapter, maybe more but I didn't count them. This was the same for the first book, "A Catered Murder." I had fun with the characters...this was a light read and good for a day when you need to fill in some time. I will continue to read the books to see what relationship evolves between Libby and Marvin and if Sean (their father)will actually NOT be embarrassed to be seen in public in his wheelchair. His view on that has bothered me, and gives the hint that maybe disabled person's should be heard....not seen.