Customer Reviews

Deadly Pleasure

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Brenda Joyce's ongoing "Deadly" Series is wonderful. Francesca Cahill and Rick Bragg work wonderfully together and are falling in love with each other though Rick is married. His wife has been in Europe for 4 years and he is supporting her. The first in the series was Deadly Love, then Deadly Pleasure, and now Deadly Affairs. Deadly Desire will follow in May 2002. Other interesting characters are Connie (Fran's sister) and Neil, her husband, Calder (Rick's half brother), Evan (Fran's brother) who is engaged to Sarah and neither are happy with this engagement,
Maggie (Joel's mother and Fran's assistant). You will enjoy the crime solving by Francesca who is not like most young ladies of wealth in the 1902s. Read the books in order. You'll enjoy the suspense and the developing relationship between Rick and Fran.

I wanted to read this for the fresh setting and time--New York, 1902. Joyce does a fantastic job of making me see the surroundings, furnishings, sounds and smells. However, halfway through the book something hit me: The [...]the heroine embarrasses herself by continually throwing herself at him. He's told her at least five times in no uncertain terms there can be nothing between them. To my mind, that leaves romance out of the picture.

The dialogue is distracting. Nobody speaks in contractions. It's always "I do not think. I will be going. I hope you are not intending. You do not mean that!" Some other irritating character quirks, such as Francesca constantly "gasping" and in one 3-page scene she wet her lips four times. Why even once, I don't know.

I appreciate the picture she paints of that period in NY history. It's colorful and glamorous to read about. But I agree with other readers that Calder Hart would've made a better "hero" instead of that surly, nasty stiff, Bragg.

I have been reading all the reviews to the Deadly Series and I am disappointed in what people say. This series was not written so that the end of each book was the end of the entire series. Also the time frame in which the books occur is only two weeks per book, so the pace in alot slower than it would be if it was just one book. The second aspect is that the characters continue to grow and develope in the next two books. I have read the enitre series and thought it was some great work by Brenda Joyce. The Deadly Series did not start off as a romance series, but more of a historical mystery/suspense series, the romance begins to develope in the end of Deadly Love and continued on into Deadly Pleasure. Each book was better than the next in my opinion. In the fourth book, Deadly Desire, the relationship between the characters have heated up considerably. I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out.

"Deadly Pleasure" by Brenda Joyce is a book that I enjoyed. I love stories from this time period (1900's.) And as far as I am concerned no one takes the reader back in time any better than this writer. I can not recall a book by Ms. Joyce that I haven't enjoyed to the max!

Her characters are always well-developed. The dialogue crisp and focused. And her plots intriguing with the perfect blend of romance.

(Ms. Joyce is a writer that I have had an eye on for quite sometime,)

If you haven't started this entertaining series now would be a good time to buy the book and hop to it!

John Savoy
C.E.O. & Financial Advisor
Savoy International
Motion Pictures

I have loved this series by Brenda Joyce - and am so "wrapped up" in the love stories entertwined in the books. I am anxious to see the turmoils overcome, the love that is evident to be able to be shared - and I suppose live happy and wonderful "storybook lives" - but also to see the crime stories and their solving to continue.

A lot of reviewers are giving Brenda Joyce a hard time about Deadly Love and Deadly Pleasures being to slow, but thats the point. The Deadly series is building momentum as it goes! You will be hooked and waiting for the next book like I am! Deadly affairs is even better and Deadly Desires tops all three. You will find yourself in the midst of a love triangle that you don't know how to solve. Brenda does an excellent job of bringing her characters to life and the secondary plots are great as well. All I can say is that I love the deadly series!!

I loved Deadly Love But I Adore Deadly Pleasure. Francessa and Rick are wonderful characters as are all the other characters in this series. There are many sub-plots and twists. There is so much passion and detail in this story I feel like I am right there with them. The Deadly books are set in 1902 New York City and Brenda Joyce discribes everything in such detail I get a mental picture right away of what is going on in the story. There are 2 more Deadly books to be released in April (Deadly Affairs) and May (Deadly Desire). I am so excited about these books and I hope we see many more in this series.

This is a novel that works if you're a fan of Brenda Joyce's and the characters that she creates. If you liked the first book in this series, "Deadly Love," and the heroine, Francesca Cahill, and are incredibly curious as to what's going on in her family, and just how smoothly her romance with New York City's new police commissioner, Rick Bragg, is going than "Deadly Pleasure" will be an enjoyable and engrossing read. If however, you are a hard-core mystery fan, this novel may be a bit of a letdown, as this novel (unlike "Deadly Love") pays more attention to the characters and the various secondary subplots than it does to the murder mystery at hand. Subplots like that involving Francesca's elder sister, Connie, and the crisis that her marriage is currently facing; and the doomed from the start engagement involving Francesca's gambling addicted brother, Evan, and his plain but extremely talented fiance, Sarah; and subplots like that of Francesca's fraught with stumbling blocks romance with police commissioner Rick Bragg, and Bragg's difficult and acrimonious relationship with his half-brother, Calder Hart... The subplot dealing with who murdered retired businessman Paul Randall, and why was sometines in danger of being totally hijacked by the other 'non-mystery' subplots!

I'll admit I was also disappointed by the manner in which Brenda Joyce depicted Francesca as a detective. Francesca not so much discovers clues and arrives at deductions, as falls from one embarrassing situation into another. And almost with every "cute" situation she found herself in, Bragg was at hand to discover her -- whether it was eavesdropping behind the door, or under a bed -- thus adding to the 'erotic' quota of the book, I suppose. Also, given that Francesca was presented as an intelligent and astute young woman (in "Deadly Love" at least), she seemed to have picked up the alarming habit of blurting out what ever was on her mind at the moment like a bubbleheaded little twit! Discretion seems to be a quality that she has decided to do without!

I can only hope that with the next book in this series, Francesca grows and becomes again the young woman she was at the beginning of "Deadly Love.".

Just a 3?... I know, I know! I have no idea why I didn't really enjoy this book. Brenda Joyce is one of my Top 5's, but this book wasn't all that great. Maybe it's because I went out and bought all the books in the series and just found out she doesn't plan on FINISHING the series (per her publisher). For the life of me I can't believe she wouldn't fight to finish a five or six book series. I think her fans deserve at least a proper ending. I guess we'll have to use our imaginations and end the story the way we envision it!

Francesca Cahill is a member of New York City's social elite at the turn of the 20th century, 1902 to be exact. She lives in a Fifth Avenue mansion, with her parents and older brother, attends glittering society balls and fundraisers, and allows herself, occasionally, to be courted by the town's most eligible bachelors. However, she is a marginal player, at best, in the comings and goings of Manhattan's rich and famous, to her mother's dismay. Francesca is a bluestocking, an unfashionable female intellectual, and is determined to do something with her mind other than plan dinner parties. Unbeknownst to her mother, she has enrolled in Barnard College with aspirations to become a journalist. Recently, however, coinciding with newly appointed police commissioner Rick Bragg's move to New York, Francesca has taken to sleuthing....and her grades are suffering as a result.

"Deadly Love," Brenda Joyce's first mystery in this series, preceding "Deadly Pleasure," introduced the cast of characters who people Francesca's life. Miss Cahill also solves her first crime in book one, a child's kidnapping which could have turned lethal, and she begins what seems to be an intense mutual attraction with the extremely charismatic Commissioner Bragg. I panned this first novel, (barely 2 Stars), so many people, including myself, may wonder why on earth I would bother reading this second installment, which is an improvement, but not by much. It is because, although our heroine is silly, (at times beyond belief), immature, indiscreet, and melodramatic, and the mysteries are filled with too many coincidences to suit my taste, the secondary characters are absolutely fascinating. Their ongoing stories do make these books worth reading - very light reading, mind you!

Francesca had calling/business cards printed by Tiffany reading, "Francesca Cahill, Crime-Solver Extraordinaire, No. 810 Fifth Avenue, New York City, All Cases Accepted, No Crime Too Small." Cute? Not! And she passes these cards out all over town! This is supposedly a brilliant, serious minded young woman of the upper classes, not a merchant's daughter, who wants to keep her sleuthing a secret from her family? I am embarrassed for her and the author.

A recipient of one of these Tiffany embossed cards, Miss Georgette de Labouche, leaves a note for Francesca requesting her immediate assistance on a most urgent matter. The matter turns out to be a dead body, the corpse of Miss Labouche's wealthy, longtime lover. The unhappy woman is more concerned with getting rid of the body than with discovering the identity of the killer. Fran sends Joel, the child pickpocket she has hired as an assistant to get the police. Commissioner Bragg is delighted to see Francesca again, but exasperated to find her involved in yet another crime. The attachment between these two continues to develop, but for some reason, Rick is unable to court her or declare his feelings, except as a friend.

The most interesting part of the book is the introduction of Rick's half brother, the wealthy rake Calder Hart. Actually the man is much more complex, which is why he is such a compelling figure. Both Rick and Calder are illegitimate, with different fathers and the same mother, and they do not get along at all. The relationship between these two, and their individual lives and backgrounds, are fascinating. Evan Cahill, Francesca's older brother, is another engaging character. He is a smart, caring man, but flawed - with a tendency to gamble and accumulate debts. In fact he has got himself in way over his head and owes a fortune. Andrew Cahill, the family patriarch, a savvy businessman and affectionate father, (pulled himself up by the bootstraps), has agreed to pay off the debts only if Evan agrees to marry a young woman he does not love, nor even care to become better acquainted with. His fiancee has unseen depth, however, and is a brilliant artist, but only Francesca is aware of this. Then there is Constance, the beautiful big sister, married to the very handsome British Lord Neil Montrose, who Francesca has discovered "in flagrante" with another woman. The clan's maternal force, Julia Cahill, is an extremely strong character determined to marry-off her children well.

The series' premise is a winner - a society girl/college student sleuth in 1902 NYC. But Ms. Joyce foundered badly in her first novel and has not improved much here. "Deadly Pleasure," the main plot, is not very complex or suspenseful. And PLEASE, if Francesca is supposed to be intelligent, work on her character so that she comes off as a smart young woman with a good head on her shoulders! It seems that more time is spent describing the heroine's wardrobe than developing a suspenseful plot and the principal character. In one instance, the author goes on at length about a peach colored evening gown. On the next page the same dress has mysteriously turned mint green. It seems that Ms. Joyce is churning-out a "Deadly series" novel 3 times a year. The results are formulaic and sloppy. I get angry because the series has such possibilities. Also, fans of light reading do understand the difference between quality and trash. Never underestimate us!

I am still intrigued by the Cahill family and those who touch their lives. Save your time and money with this one. But it is only the second in a series, so perhaps Ms. Joyce will hit her stride. The setting and concept, and certainly the characters, are worth another try. I will let you know after book three - and if there is no great improvement there, I quit!
JANA