Customer Reviews

Charleston Red

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

 

 

I feel that Charleton Red is the a great novel and a great way to spend the time on a rainy afternoon. The characters were well defined and the personalities of the characters made them believeable and easy to relate to. This book had me on the edgo of my seat the entire time wondering what was going to happen next. I can't wait for the next book by Sarah Galchus to come out.

"Charleston Red." This book's title might be a reference to the blood shed by the murderer in this mystery novel. Or, set in modern-day Charleston, South Carolina, it might only be referring to the bright flame-colored drawing rooms of anti-bellum mansions in an older, fabled Charleston. Or maybe it's both. In any case it's an apt title on both levels because there's plenty of blood and plenty of local color in this book. The chief protagonist is Laura Lindross, a successful New York mystery novelist spending the winter in Charleston working on her next novel when--shades of "Murder, She Wrote"--and a thousand others--horrible things happen to her friends and acquaintances. (I'm not being dismissive here, merely attempting to be informative; these mystery novels are a genre unto themselves, with lots and lots of avid readers who are less interested in original plots than vividly rendered locales and interesting characters.) And in this book, man-oh-man is the locale vividly rendered: "She smiled and indicated a large moss-colored chenille afghan, bottle green martini glasses, several beautiful silver picture frames and a hanging lamp blown of opaque amber-colored glass and decorated with wrought-iron detail." The action and the characters interact in a world of wealth, privilege and empty hours and days unfamiliar to most of the books readers--which of course makes the whole thing all that much more interesting. Admittedly this reader knows nothing of Charleston or the every day life of its richest inhabitants, but the characters in this book are rendered with sufficient skill to make him believe that he does--and that's all that is really required for a good read.

Mike Nardine

I read this mystery novel in one afternoon - I couldn't put it down it was very seductive - I just had to know the outcome. The descriptions were very real and the characterizations very well drawn. I felt like I was in Charleston. Good work!!

I truly enjoyed this book! It caught my interest from the very beginning and I found myself trying to read a few pages every chance I got! The plot twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. This is a great book to curl up with in front of the fire.

Badly written and by someone with no clue about the world she purports to describe. While one does not expect a mystery writer to be fully aware of investigative protocols, one is entitled to logical sequences and endings - both missing here. Go back to medicine and leave the writing craft to others, please, doc.