The Dead Don't Get Out Much: A Camilla MacPhee Mystery [Paperback]

Mary Jane Maffini (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Camilla MacPhee Mystery | Publication Date: November 1, 2005

Remembrance Day is a proud day for Camilla MacPhee's good friend, Mrs. Violet Parnell, one of five thousand Canadian women to go overseas during World War II. But the next day she has vanished. Camilla, with only a few letters and documents to guide her, follows her friend to Tuscany, chasing though historic towns, across high promontories and along steep mountain roads. Vanishing old partisans and Allied aircraft crash sites keep Camilla hopping as she tries to find Mrs. P. before someone with a deadly serious reason to keep the past hidden finds her first. The fifth Camilla MacPhee takes the irascible Ottawa lawyer's adventures to an exotic new locale, with the usual murderous results.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Remembrance Day is a proud day for Camilla MacPhee's good friend, Mrs. Violet Parnell, one of five thousand Canadian women to go overseas during World War II. But the next day she has vanished. Camilla, with only a few letters and documents to guide her, follows her friend to Tuscany.

About the Author

Mary Jane Maffini is a lapsed librarian and a mystery addict. She is the author of six Camilla MacPhee mysteries, two Fiona Silk adventures, five Charlotte Adams books, and nearly two dozen short stories. She holds two Arthur Ellis Awards for best mystery short story, as well as the Derrick Murdoch lifetime achievement award. Speak Ill of the Dead was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel and Lament for a Lounge Lizard for best novel. Mary Jane lives and plots in Ottawa.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Napolean and Co (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894917308
• ISBN-13: 978-1894917308
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,287,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three protagonists and mystery series: Charlotte Adams is a professional organizer in upstate New York, while Camilla MacPhee snoops in Canada's capital, and Fiona Silk has to be the most reluctant sleuth in West Quebec. The latest Charlotte Adams mystery is Death Loves a Messy Desk and the long-awaited sixth Camilla MacPhee book, Law & Disorder, hit the shelves in the fall 2009. The fourth Charlotte Adams book, Closet Confidential will be out in July 2010 and The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder will follow. A seventh Camilla MacPhee book is slowly simmering. Before turning to crime, Mary Jane had lots of mysterious fun as a librarian and a mystery bookseller. She's been reveling in mystery all her life and has also written nearly two dozen crime short stories. She's won two Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis awards for short stories and has been nominated four more times for novels and short stories. She lives and plots overlooking the scenic Rideau River, in Ottawa, Ontario with her long-suffering husband and two princessy dachshunds. Along with brave little Lily, she is a member of Ottawa Therapy Dogs.

www.maryjanemaffini.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buona Sera, Camilla, February 1, 2006

By 

Lou Allin "Islander" (Vancouver Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Don't Get Out Much: A Camilla MacPhee Mystery (Paperback)

In this fifth entry in the best-selling and internationally translated Camilla MacPhee series set in Ottawa, Remembrance Day celebrations get off to a dramatic start. While Camilla and her eccentric sidekick Alvin watch the parade, their dear friend Violet Parnell, a World War Two vet in her eighties, collapses from shock after the march and is taken to the hospital. "I'm terribly troubled by a dead man," she says. Has she mistaken someone in the crowd or is the sharp and crusty lady who loves her Bristol Cream and Benson & Hedges the victim of early dementia? The situation escalates when Violet slips away against doctor's orders, packs hurriedly, and leaves the country. Alvin and Camilla discover the woman's apartment ransacked, and through an assembly of clues, some of which come from wartime letters, discover that Italy is her destination. Desperate about her friend's precarious health, Camilla ignites her charge card and takes wing, rents a toy car, and is soon careering through the hills of Tuscany. Always one-step ahead in her luxury sedan, Mrs. Parnell follows a trail deeper into the hills and deeper still into the past. What they discover lead to a secret of shame and betrayal which opens old wounds and points to murder.
Maffini, often called Canada's answer to Janet Evanovich, writes this book with the more serious implications of history, but her usual droll comic perceptions and singular voice underlie every scene. Camilla's experiences with the Italian personality never fail to amuse, as do her fumblingly realistic efforts with the language as she searches for her "nonna," a buzzword guaranteed to elicit sympathy from a family-oriented society. Her descriptions of the countryside, the charming inns, taverns, and squares, are a trip in themselves from a bewildered Canadian's perspective. "Outside of the cities, it is very green, and much of it is situated on forty-five degree slopes. Imagine vineyards marching up and down. The roads are dotted with snazzy cars doing two hundred kilometres an hour. I should also mention that there are a zillion silver Opels going almost as fast. My Ka...just chugged along a little faster than a rollerblade." The poignant letters, drawn from actual family correspondence, anchor the background and provide a charming portrait of a romantic but tragic era. Maffini doles out clues on a regular basis and keeps the pages turning with a surprise around every hairpin corner. Witty, resolute, and inventive, Camilla is the ideal travel companion. Dig into a chocolate gelati, and enjoy this entertaining ride.