A Deadly Arrangement (Feng Shui Mysteries) [Paperback]

Denise Osborne (Author)

Book Description

Series: Feng Shui Mysteries | Publication Date: September 5, 2001

Feng shui practitioner Salome Waterhouse can spot a bad vibe from a mile away. Usually a simple rearranging of a room can patch things up. But occasionally, she has to delve a little deeper...

In A Deadly Arrangement, the first book in the series, Salome inherits her grandfather's infamous Perfume Mansion, a place stinking of bad energy. She chooses to rent it out to artist Palmer Fordham. But before she has a chance to apply her feng shui principles, she finds Palmer dead. Now, Salome is the prime suspect in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Talk about bad feng shui...

Editorial Reviews

Review

Denise Osborne has crafted an intelligent and altogether riveting mystery... -- Margaret Coel

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; First Edition edition (September 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425181847
• ISBN-13: 978-0425181843
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A one sitting read, September 5, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: A Deadly Arrangement (Feng Shui Mysteries) (Paperback)

For five years, bicoastal traveler Salome Waterhouse rented out the Perfume Mansion in Holyrood off of Monterey Bay to artist Palmer Fordham. Because she feels the place has bad vibes, Salome, a practitioner of Feng Shui, has not entered the place in years. However, this morning she goes there because an anonymous person hired her to Feng Shui the place as a birthday present to Palmer.

Instead of her usual scenario, Salome finds a murdered Palmer in the house and immediately calls her cousin Phyllis, chief of police. Phyllis arrives and takes charge of the crime scene while treating Salome with contempt and as the prime suspect. Phyllis always blamed Salome for inheriting the Perfume Mansion, a place she covets. After feeling her cousin's negative vibes Salome knows that she need some strong Feng Shui medicine to prove her innocence and to clean the evil that resides in her mansion.

A DEADLY ARRANGEMENT is a different type of police procedural-amateur sleuth tale due to the large amounts of Feng Shui incorporated throughout the plot. The story line is cleverly designed but is disrupted by the swings back and forth in time. Salome is an interesting and refreshing lead character and the cast's varying degrees of acceptance of her leads to greater understanding of the protagonist and her practice. Followers of Feng Shui will feel the positive vibes emanating from this plot while other readers will say phooey to way too much Feng Shui.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Deadly Arrangement (Feng Shui Mysteries), May 25, 2005

By 

Z. Bahti "Z Bahti" (McCammon, Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Deadly Arrangement (Feng Shui Mysteries) (Paperback)

I loved this book. It was such fun to read a book about a character that thinks and operates like I do. As a feng shui practitioner thinking and seeing things from the feng shui aspect is automatic. I only marked the book down because I found way to many homonyms. One or two I can overlook but there were many in this book and careful editing would have caught them, spell check will not. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Osborne's books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much Feng Shui, February 10, 2003

By 

Dawn Dowdle "Mystery Lovers Corner reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Deadly Arrangement (Feng Shui Mysteries) (Paperback)

Salome Waterhouse finds Palmer Fordham dead. He rents the house from her that has been in her family for years. She is a Feng Shui practicioner. She had received an anonymous payment and request to perform a Feng Shui consultation for his birthday.

Her cousin Phyllis Waterhouse is the Chief of Police. Their relationship is strained because their grandfather left the Perfume Mansion (the house she'd rented to Palmer and surrounding land) to Salome. Dora Whalen, the Perfume's housekeeper, lives in the caretaker's cottage on the grounds of the Perfume. Salome's ex, Gabe, is a famous mystery author. Salome did lots of research with him when they were married. Palmer was a famous artist.

Salome looks into Palmer's life and tries to help figure out who would have wanted Palmer dead. It ends up putting Phyllis and her in danger.

This book was not one of my favorites. It is well written, but I found it to be VERY heavy with Feng Shui. I would have liked the story better without so much description of Feng Shui. I don't think it contributed to the story.

I will say that I have read the 2nd book in this series and liked it much better.