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23 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another delightful Hayter book!, June 14, 2000

By

Dela1970 "Dela1970" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chelsea Girl Murders: A Robin Hudson Mystery (Robin Hudson Mysteries) (Hardcover)

It's always such a pleasure to read Sparkle Hayter's witty, fast-paced prose and heroine Robin Hudson's quirky, irreverent commentary on the world around her. This is one of the few authors I rush out to buy in hardcover as soon as the book is released, and I've yet to be disappointed.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move into the Chelsea NOW!, June 19, 2000

By

Kathy Blumenstock (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chelsea Girl Murders: A Robin Hudson Mystery (Robin Hudson Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Once again Sparkle Hayter invites readers to share a slice of zany life with Robin Hudson, her sleuth-cum-TV-newsie.

Forced from her apartment by a fire, Robin and her tabby cat, Louise Bryant, find sanctuary at the Chelsea Hotel. Naturally the stay is not uneventful, what with a man dying at Robin's feet, a young woman who appears, then vanishes, and a host of characters, each with their own odd agendas, each of whom seems a likely suspect for murder, mayhem and more. Of course Robin tries to solve the murder, find the missing girl and tie up the tag ends of questions galore, all against the backdrop of the storied hotel. Sparkle Hayter sprinkles tidbits of the hotel's history like tasty croutons, painting a vivid picture of a special place to live and dream.

I wont give away the scene with the nuns, or the trek through Central Park, you'll just have to laugh your way through them yourself. The witticisms and brilliant "wish-I'd-said-that" lines sprout like the poison ivy Robin likes to grow for protection from burglars.

When I finished this book, I was disappointed to look up and find I did NOT live in the Chelsea after all. If you've ever lived in NYC, this book will evoke the good memories; if you haven't, you'll feel as if you did, cursing at cabs and mingling with the sidewalk masses.

"The Chelsea Girl Murders" is a good-humored escape from the boring Monday-Tuesday-Wednesdayish reality most of us face daily. Luckily Sparkle Hayter and Robin Hudson provide the Maximum Daily Requirement of laughter and fun.

If you have not read the previous Robin Hudson books, start here and work your way back. You will not be disappointed.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A plesant read, June 9, 2000

By

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Chelsea Girl Murders: A Robin Hudson Mystery (Robin Hudson Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In the Big Apple, Robin Hudson is a forty-one-year-old power player who heads programming for the Worldwide Women's Network. She travels to more countries in a month than most families visit in their lifetimes. A fire forces Robin and her cat Louise Bryant to leave their East Village apartment. They move into a friend's apartment at SOHO's Chelsea Hotel.

Robin has no time to mourn her loss of possessions. Instead, she immediately becomes involved with the problems of two eloping teenagers who are running from their menacing families. Dangerous looking thugs seem to line up the streets chasing after the runaways. Robin vows to keep them safe, not yet realizing the risk she will take for this wonderful cause.

Robin is an interesting person who many readers will admire because she has a quirky charm that is beguiling. The entertaining heroine is zany, hip, quirky, and most important in this age of the disposable friendship, loyal. The story line is unusual, at times surreal, but always enjoyable as Robin co-stars with New York in the offbeat THE CHELSEA GIRL MURDERS. Sparkle Hayter lives up to her first name with this sparkling story that will appeal to urban amateur sleuth fans.

Harriet Klausner

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opener
Enjoyed the tale, read it in about three hours, appreciated the style and the way it all hung together, found many aspects very amusing, especially the climax of five nuns and Ms... Read more

Published on October 29, 2006 by mesmh

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the others
I really enjoyed Sparkle Hayter's other book, Naked Brunch and picked up all of her books. This one to me was not as tight as the earlier books in the series IMO. Read more

Published on February 13, 2006 by Catfish Kozmo

4.0 out of 5 stars Might be the best in her series...
In keeping with the Hayter streak I've been on of late, I started and finished The Chelsea Girl Murders by Sparkle Hayter. Read more

Published on July 22, 2004 by Thomas Duff

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Sparkly tale
"The Chelsea girl murders" by writer Sparkle Hayter is the fifth in a series of mystery novels about Robin Hudson. Read more

Published on April 18, 2004 by Ei

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique in setting and characters
I like how Sparkle Hayter throws amateur detective Robin Hudson into a ridiculous situation involving a murder and then has her figure her way out of it. Read more

Published on February 27, 2003 by Gooding

4.0 out of 5 stars Humor, danger, and an angst ridden love life among the arts.
Sparkle Hayter's Robin Hudson is rapidly becoming one of my favorite characters in the sub genre that is hard boiled humor romance mystery (for lack of a better term). Read more

Published on October 12, 2002 by Steven R. Harbin

5.0 out of 5 stars Too New York
It's a very funny, but overly fantastic,mystery set in Manhattan in the Chelsea Hotel (with a lot of Chelsea Hotel history thrown in). Read more

Published on December 26, 2001 by D. P. Birkett

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Funny
I thought the beginning was a bit slow and almost stopped reading. Along came Maggie Mason and I was hooked. It was fun to see how Ms. Read more

Published on January 2, 2001 by caryninlaca

5.0 out of 5 stars Great characters, relationships. A fun read
It is a mystery, but the characters, especially Robin Hudson, spend most of their time working on other problems. Read more

Published on October 25, 2000 by booksforabuck

1.0 out of 5 stars Hopelessly contrived plot; a waste of time
I read this book because I worked in Chelsea, and passed the famous Chelsea Hotel every day. Since I also love both mysteries and humor, I expected to enjoy it. Read more

Published on October 18, 2000

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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
Thanks to Mrs. Dulcinia Ramirez and her pathological love of Jesus, and thanks also to the Holy Toledo Religious Novelty Company of Toledo, Ohio, and Shanghai, China, my neighbors and I found ourselves out on the street in our pajamas one spring night, watching our building burn. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
lifting hand weights, bad toupee, frizzy brown hair, loft bed, wrong apartment

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Maggie Mason, Grace Rouse, Miriam Grundy, Gerald Woznik, Chelsea Hotel, Man Trap, Mother Superior, Art Break, Bus Stop Bar, Long Island, Louise Bryant, Mary Sue, Michael the Martyr, Central Park, June Fairchild, Louis Levin, Michael O'Reilly, Oliver Grundy, Ruck Urkfisk, Twenty-third Street, East Village, Marilyn Quayle, Sister Marie, Spencer Roo

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