Dead Man's Island [Hardcover]

Carolyn G. Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1993

A hurricane sweeps toward Chase Prescott's private island, marooning a host of lethal suspects and the one woman who can sort through them all: Prescott's former lover, retired newshound Henrietta O'Dwyer. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this action-packed series launch, the author of the Death on Demand mysteries introduces Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, a widowed former reporter whose investigative instincts have not been blunted by retirement. Forty years after their love affair ended, media magnate Chase Prescott calls "Henrie O" for help in figuring out who tried to kill him with poisoned candy. He invites her and all those he suspects of wanting him dead to his private island off the coast of South Carolina, hoping that Henrie will be able to ferret out the identity of his would-be killer. While a brewing hurricane threatens the island, Henrie faces a full roster of suspects: Chase's young third wife; his second wife's sister; his idealistic sons; a sly secretary; the purported heir-apparent to Chase's empire; his firm's general counsel; and a surly, abusive employee. Feisty and incisive, Henrie tries valiantly to determine who is behind further attempts on Chase's life while the storm, a would-be killer of a different sort, gathers. Two people are murdered; the hurricane shears wings off the mansion and redoubtable Henrie figures out the motives and the murderer in a tumultuous resolution.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The creator of the popular Annie Darling series introduces an older sleuth of forceful charm and infinite wisdom. Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, known affectionately as Henrie O, writes novels after working 50 years as a journalist. Longtime friend Chase Prescott, multimillionaire media magnate, begs her to visit his private island near Charleston so that she can deduce which of the people there wants him dead. Hart handles the classic situation (isolated mansion full of colorful suspects) with panache, controlling the melodrama but utilizing monster Hurricane Derek to great effect as plot and storm peak together. A surefire winner. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1ST edition (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553091735
• ISBN-13: 978-0553091731
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,644,071 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

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for Hart fans, April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Man's Island-Large Print (Hardcover)

I have been a fan of Ms. Hart's "Death on Demand" series, and was not looking forward to a new series and new protagonist. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! It is hard to convince a loyal reader to open up to a new character and setting, but Carolyn is able to do that. Where Annie Laurence is young and brash, Henrie O is older and savvier. This mystery is sharper, more serious, and suspenseful than most of the "Death on Demand" series. If Carolyn can find renewal by writing for two series, more power to her. She is obviously a very talented writer, and I am waiting happily for the next Henrie O AND Annie Laurence mysteries.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting whodunit!, April 3, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Dead Man's Island (Mass Market Paperback)

Wealthy, arrogant Chase Prescott invites his long-ago colleague Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins to come to his private island to try to determine who is trying to murder him. He tells her that an attempt has been made on his life and that he is determined to find the culprit. He invites anyone whom he feels had the motive and opportunity to Dead Man's Island (renamed Prescott Island by the egotistic Chase.) Henry O accepts his invitation and joins the others for a few days on the isolated, mysterious island off the coast of South Carolina. The problem she encounters is that everyone present does have a motive and that makes it difficult for her to find the culprit. The action becomes more exciting towards the end when a powerful hurricane threatens the island and murders begin to occur. The solution to the murder is a convoluted one which defies logic and which makes me wonder why Chase invited Henry O in the first place. The book is very readable, however, and gives the reader many pages of real suspense.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Christie replacement her publisher would like, April 7, 2000

By 

Elsie Wilson (Aberystwyth, Cymru) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Man's Island (Mass Market Paperback)

Again, as with the last Hart i read, this is a good book, but there is something about it that i just do not like. In this case, i think, it has to do with the struture of the end: Henrie O is left, after all the action is over, writing to no purpose except directly to us, to unravel the final twist of the plot (and it's a doozy; Hart can develop surprising twists, no argument there). I don't like that feeling of being addressed directly (just as it is annoying when characters in films talk to the camera), unless it has been legitimised earlier in the book; in this case, it happens solely at the end, and with the specific purpose of surprising us. Secondly, and equally disappointingly, the twist is flawed: Henrie O's final solution is out of character for the person involved and is not an acceptable or believable answer to the problems set in the mystery. Hart is not by any means a replacement for Agatha Chistie -- her plotting is not sound enough -- but she is a good, quick, acceptable read for people who miss the Queen.