Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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

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.

I read this book in about 2 hours. I found the characters annoying and one dimensional, and the plot was boring. I think the best character died in the first chapter. This series needs some work, and the recipes sound NASTY.

Lisa Sharpe is marrying a very rich man, who happens to be more than two decades her senior. She is not marrying for love; she is marrying for money as the nine carets on her hand, the twenty-five K wedding dress, and a billion other items make up for the lack of passion. When she gets a call to meet someone at the wedding tent, an irritated Lisa enters the reception tent, but is killed instantly by a cross bow arrow.

Catering the nuptials, Bernadette and Libby Simmons, owners of A Taste of Heaven, find the body. The father of the Simmons sisters Sean is the former police chief, but now confined to a wheelchair due to a debilitating illness; he takes an interest in the homicide especially when he and his two daughters are hired to uncover the identity of the perpetrator. For the first time in three years, he has left his home to scope out the crime scene while his daughters heed (not) his advice and investigate on their own only to find much of the wedding party including the groom had motives and opportunity.

A CATERED WEDDING is an upbeat, funny and delightful amateur sleuth mystery (though one is a former professional - he got paid for investigations) due to the three main characters. Sean tries unsuccessfully to boss his daughters, but Bernie spouts encyclopedic paragraphs at the drop of a hat and Libby is the poster girl for obsessive-compulsive. All the suspects have strong motives for wanting the victim dead so in spite of clues readers will remain clueless until the author reveals the killer's identity. The three likable protagonists win readers' hearts as they "crash" the wedding party.

Harriet Klausner

This was the first book I'd read in this series by Isis Crawford, and based on this selection I won't read any others. Too many grammatical errors on nearly every page. It's distracting and sloppy. Even the story line, which initially has promise, gets lost at the end and just kind of filters out. This reads like a first draft, not like a polished novel.

I was hoping this book would be better than the first. Instead, nothing's changed. Although I have to applaud anyone with the energy and spunk to get a novel published, I wish Ms. Crawford would learn English grammar and punctuation. Really, would it hurt to add a comma here and there? And the grammar really needs attention; sometimes, it's impossible to tell from the narrative which character is doing or saying what. I still find the characters too broadly drawn, although Marvin is starting to catch my interest. Given time and a willingness to improve, I think this could be a very enjoyable series.

Sprinkled with recipes! Who would have thought a mystery could be so delicious? Murder, mayhem and food, what a great combination. I have met the author and she is a great caterer with a terrific imagination.

Just started reading this author and have ordered her next book in this series. The books are so interesting you can't wait until the next one to come out and the recipes are an added bonus

The 2nd installment in the Catered Mystery series found sisters Bernadette and Libby Simmons catering a wedding for "wallet-sniffer", Leeza Sharp. Leeza is marrying the baron of caviar, Jura Raid. She plans an expensive, elaborate wedding and instead of reveling in her beautiful nuptials, she is murdered. Leeza was definitely what many might call a "bridezilla", and few people were upset by her death. Bernadette and Libby jump in to find a murderer, and save themselves from being labeled the caterers that kill.

I very rarely have given a book a 2 star rating. I wanted to like this book. I read the reviews prior to purchasing the book, and thought that I could get past the grammatical errors, and uneven plot. I could not. I was highly disappointed with the massive amount of errors, and general lack of commas throughout the book. It was highly distracting, and I struggled to follow the dialogue. As a previous reviewer mentioned, I thought the premise was good. However, this was completely lost with all of the errors, and I will not be in a hurry to read any more books in this series.

The first book in the series was called "A Catered Murder". There are several other great culinary mysteries on the market, so if you like culinary mysteries, you may want to give those a try. A similar concept in catering mysteries (and very highly recommended) is the Diane Mott Davidson series. Enjoy!