Dare to Die (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 19) [Hardcover]

Carolyn Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2009

She came in the rain. Alone. On a bicycle.

Annie and Max Darling are completely unprepared when the arrival of a mysterious young woman shocks their sea island and stirs up more than just gossip.

It turns out that Iris, the beautiful stranger, is a former resident of Broward's Rock. Her arrival throws the normally happy town into a downward spiral that pits neighbor against neighbor.

Things take a turn for the worse when Annie befriends Iris and invites her to attend the Darlings' party at the pavilion where Death is the uninvited guest. Suddenly, Max and Annie find themselves in the middle of a fight they don't understand and at the mercy of an unknown assailant who's trying to kill them—and all they know is that it is one of their friends.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Agatha-winner Hart's winning 19th Death on Demand mystery set in Broward's Rock, S.C. (after 2008's Death Walked In), Annie Darling and her PI husband, Max, invite Iris Tilford, a troubled young woman who used to live in the island community and has recently returned, to a party they're giving at the Broward's Rock pavilion. The party ends in tragedy with Annie and Max's discovery of Iris's strangled body on a path in the surrounding pine woods. Annie promises police chief Billy Cameron she won't meddle in the investigation, but when the killer targets her and Max, she breaks her vow. The plot neatly builds to an exciting climax in the Agatha Christie tradition, with all the suspects gathered near the scene of the crime, each with a strong motive for murder. Hart assembles her usual distinctive supporting cast, including wacky celebrity mystery writer Emma Clyde. Readers will enjoy the many allusions to actual mystery authors and their books, from the classic to the contemporary. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Intrepid duo Annie and Max Darling return for their nineteenth adventure in the Death on Demand series. Annie owns a mystery bookstore in Broward’s Rock, one of the idyllic South Carolina Sea Islands. This time Annie leaves her bookstore in the meddling hands of her mother-in-law and steps in to help her friends Ingrid and Duane Webb by taking care of their motel. One of the motel’s new residents is a lonely and troubled young woman named Iris, who had disappeared from Broward’s Rock more than 10 years earlier, following the tragic deaths of two of her high-school friends. Annie invites Iris to a party that happens to include some other old friends. By the time the evening is over, Iris is brutally murdered, and the best suspects are some of those very same old classmates. The Darlings vow not to get involved, but soon their own lives are in danger, and the body count escalates. As usual, the intricate interrelationships among the characters hold the solution to the mystery. Another strong entry in this popular series. --Judy Coon

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006145303X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061453038
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #798,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Hart writes the Death on Demand series set in a mystery bookstore on a South Carolina sea island and the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series featuring a lively redheaded ghost. Coming in 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime will be DEATH COMES SILENTLY, 22nd in the Death on Demand series, and WHAT THE CAT SAW, fist in the series featuring Nela Farley who has an uncanny sense of cats' thoughts.

She is also the author of several WWII novels, including ESCAPE FROM PARIS which is now available for the first time in its complete uncut version. Escape from Paris is the story of two sisters who defy the Gestapo to help British fliers avoid capture.

In Ghost at Work, Bailey Ruth returns to earth to help someone in trouble. She moves a body, investigates a murder, saves a marriage, prevents a suicide, and--in a fiery finale--rescues a child who knows too much. In Merry, Merry Ghost, Bailey Ruth protects a little boy from danger. In Ghost in Trouble, Bailey Ruth tries to corral a wilful woman determined to play hunt-the-killer. Coming in 2013 is HIJACKED GHOST which puts Bailey Ruth at risk of ever returning to Heaven.

Letter from Home, a WWII novel set on the home front, received the Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2003. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. Thirteen-year-old Gretchen Gilman is working for the small-town newspaper during the hot summer of 1944. Murder occurs on the street where she lives, forever changing her life and the lives of those involved.

Hart was one of 10 mystery authors featured at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC, in 2003 for Letter from Home and again in 2007 for Set Sail for Murder, 7th in the Henrie O series. In Set Sail for Murder (new in paperback March 2008), Henrie O joins a troubled family on a Baltic cruise and death is an unwelcome passenger.

Hart has been nominated 9 times for the Agatha Award for Best Novel and has won 3 times. In 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic. She will be the International Guest of Honor at Bloody Words in Toronto on June 6-8, 2008.

Hart is a native of Oklahoma City, a journalism graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and a former president of Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and American Crime Writers League.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hart's Newest Story Fulfills A Weekend's Entertainment, June 16, 2009

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dare to Die (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 19) (Hardcover)

With DARE TO DIE, Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand Mystery series continues the misadventures of Annie and Max Darling, the couple who lands in the dead center of yet another murder. Nearing the end of an intense restoration of the Franklin house, their antebellum project and soon-to-be new home, Max plans a welcoming party. Broward's Rock, his South Carolina Low Country island home, will host a full evening of food, music and drink for neighbors and friends. Undaunted by water damage to the Franklin house remodel, Max rents the Harbor pavilion.

Anticipation of the gala at the Harbor elicits mixed reactions among the guests who have been invited, close friends of the Darlings. A well-to-do product of Broward's Rock, Max has gathered long-time "tennis club" associates into his and Annie's social circle. But a mysterious young woman arrives this day. "She comes in the rain, alone, on a bicycle."

Iris is a former island resident, long removed in time and place from her past life as a teenager here. She has dealt with personal demons --- drugs, alcohol and homelessness --- but returns to cleanse the memory of a night when her dear friend, Jocelyn, dies. She must discover the truth.

Meanwhile, Annie tends to business at her bookstore, Death on Demand. She welcomes local mystery writer Emma Clyde, who has developed a case of writer's block. While sympathizing with Emma's dilemma, Annie's plans change when her manager, Ingrid, is called out of town for a family medical emergency. Ingrid and Duane own Nightingale Courts, the local motel. Annie offers that the Darlings stay at the Courts and tidy up cabins for Ingrid's guests. Besides, she and Max need a temporary home until their new one is livable. Iris is the lone resident this weekend at Nightingale Courts. Emma overhears the talk and perks up at the thought of a girl on a bike who has just arrived, perhaps a storyline for her new book. Emma goes to the motel, carries an armful of towels to Iris's room on pretense of being a maid. Snooping for her book's plot seems a normal occurrence. However, she takes a nasty fall and lands in the hospital with partial amnesia.

In the course of housekeeping at Nightingale Courts, Annie visits with the shy Iris, lends her a suit for a swim and invites her to their party that evening. She is certain that Iris will renew old acquaintances among the good friends who will attend. Finally, party time arrives, punctuated by a sinister event: Iris's murder in the woods at the Pavilion's edge.

Now the Darlings trust no one, especially none of the couples they've befriended. These friends comprised the tight group as teens who ran with Iris, her pal Jocelyn, and Jocelyn's brother. Annie promises not to interfere with the local investigation, but breaks that vow when she and Max are victims of arson at the motel. Shaken, with Max's feet burned, Annie's mission focuses on their attacker.

Annie assists Billy, the local sheriff, in finding out where Fran, Buck, Russell, Liz and Cara were at the time Iris disappeared. Their whereabouts will likely explain Jocelyn's untimely death years before. Annie believes the two are connected.

Carolyn Hart's newest story fulfills a weekend's entertainment. My empathy, however, waned with Annie's stubbornness. Previous Death on Demand books evened the pair's involvement, which I found more desirable. Max is likable in DARE TO DIE, but Annie overshadows him. He is confined to a wheelchair during the latter chapters, a circumstance that might have been altered. Sleuthing in the formula of "Murder, She Wrote" tends to supposition rather than action.

Like earlier books in the series, DARE TO DIE follows the antics of a likable couple who solves mysteries in their secluded island home. The Death on Demand bookstore, as a setting element, completes the spice.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Return to Broward's Rock, April 24, 2009

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dare to Die (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 19) (Hardcover)

Annie Darling, the proprietor of the mystery bookstore, Death on Demand, lives with her husband Max on Broward's Rock, an island off the coast of South Carolina. Iris, a young woman who grew up on the island, returns to probe a mystery concerning her friend Jocelyn, whose death was ruled a suicide many years ago. Iris feels that the death was actually a murder perpetrated by one of their mutual friends. Annie and her husand Max begin to investigate the death of Jocelyn and to interrogate the friends who might have been responsible for Jocelyn's death. Many motives are uncovered until at last the murderer is revealed. Carolyn Hart turns out her usual well-written mystery in this long-running series.

5.0 out of 5 stars fun cozy, March 31, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dare to Die (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 19) (Hardcover)

In Broward's Rock, South Carolina Max and Annie Darling are staying at the Nightingale Courts while their antebellum mansion is being renovated. The couple plans to host a picnic with their island neighbors celebrating the renovation. At the motel, they meet former islander Iris Tilford, a recovering drug and alcohol addict tied to a local overdose death and a suicide when she was a teen. Annie invites Iris to the party.

However the Darling gala abruptly ends when Iris' corpse is found; someone strangled her to death. Police Chief Billy Cameron demands a promise from Annie that she will stay out of the investigation that he (and his team) is conducting; she agrees. However, eccentric islander mystery writer Emma Clyde sees a novel coming from the Tilford homicide so investigates until she is knocked out of the game. When the unknown culprit appears to target the Darling duet, Death on Demand bookstore owner Annie and private investigator Max break their pledge to Cameron and begin snooping.

As always with the wonderful Death on Demand series (see DEATH WALKED IN), fans receive an engaging whodunit with many interwoven references to other mystery authors and their titles. The story line has an Agatha Christie feel to it in which almost any moment Inspector Poirot (instead of Annie and Max) will gather the suspects together and challenge each of their alibis in a group interrogation that brings out the past and present. Fans will enjoy the latest cozy as the Darlings try to prevent further killings especially their own.

Harriet Klausner