Dealing in Murder: A Molly Doyle Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Elaine Flinn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2003

Elizabeth Porter was a top-of-the-lineManhattan antiques dealer until her ex-husband and his lover's flagrantly criminal scam left her reputation in tatters. Now, using a new name, Molly Doyle, she's starting over a continent away in a rundown antiques shop in cozy Carmel, California. Molly is determined to make the best of it. But the early antiques bird sometimes gets more than the worm, and one prompt arrival places her at a murder site with a corpse in her arms. After she turns up at a second seemingly unrelated death, the abrasive new police chief considers Molly the prime suspect. Now the only way to clear her name is for Molly to find her own path to a killer, which will leave her either exonerated ... or dead.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A crackerjack mystery novel from beginning to end.” (--Carmel Pine Cone )

“Elaine Flinn’s debut mystery is a hip happening.” (Mystery Lovers Book News )

“[A] wonderful debut novel....well-crafted plot.” (Chicago Sun-Times )

“Delicious . . . .a must read.” (Salinas Californian )

“Edgy, smart, briskly paced.” (Booknews from The Poisoned Pen )

“A delicious who-dun-it....riveting.” (Carmel Magazine )

About the Author

Elaine Flinn was an antiques dealer in the San Francisco Bay area for many years. Dealing in Murder is her first novel. Trading treasures for her love of mystery, she lives on the Monterey Peninsula and is at work on the next book in the series.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060545798
• ISBN-13: 978-0060545796
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One is NOT ENOUGH, January 6, 2004

By 

Cornelia Read (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dealing in Murder: A Molly Doyle Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Anyone who reads Elaine Flinn's debut mystery will join me in wishing that this woman not only enjoys a long and prolific career, but that she writes fast. If I didn't think it would prolong the arrival of the next book in this series, I would organize a group to picket Flinn's house in Carmel demanding more Molly Doyle ASAP.

Molly is savvy, salty, and fun. She may be down on her luck after her (thankfully) ex-husband's antiques fraud is exposed, but she's no whiner. Given the opportunity to start again at the bottom of the trade, she rolls up her sleeves and starts wheeling and dealing "merch" whenever she's not trolling garage and estate sales for the inventory she'll need to rebuild her reputation.

A chance find lands her in the middle of a murder investigation, which she handles with more aplomb, guts, and polish than any character I've run across since Hollywood started using Technicolor. This is a woman you want to see played by Rosalind Russell or the mature Bacall--a chick who knows from good bourbon and snappy comebacks.

Molly's (and Flinn's) depth of professional expertise makes the Antiques Roadshow look like a La-Z-Boy commercial. If you want learn how to tell Sheraton from Shinola, and tons more besides, this book blows the rest of the antique-mystery subgenre out of the water.

The only caveat I have for potential readers is to hold off on "Dealing" if you've recently quit smoking, or to have plenty of Nicorette on hand while you peruse. Molly and her newfound Carmel gang like their tobacco as much as their banter, and the going is rough for the recently smoke-free.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The antiques biz is a killer!, June 26, 2004

By 

David Montgomery "Book Critic" (davidjmontgomery.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dealing in Murder: A Molly Doyle Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

A new writer whose name ought to garner a lot of attention is Elaine Flinn, author of the wonderful debut novel Dealing in Murder, which shows just how dangerous the world of antiques can be.

Molly Doyle was a hotshot dealer in New York until her dramatic public downfall and arrest, caused by her husband's scamming and philandering. She is exiled to the Left Coast and a friend sets her up in a ramshackle antiques shop on the Monterey Peninsula.

Doyle is an appealing protagonist, a mixture of anger, savvy and vulnerability. She also seems authentic, the kind of character you could actually know and like. She is a strong woman who can handle herself but never seems like a feminine man, which unfortunately happens with too many female mystery characters.

The well-crafted plot revolves around three sins: murder, fraud and greed. It's complicated enough to keep you interested in finding out what happened and why, but not so convoluted that it leaves you baffled or bores you with its improbability.

Reviewed by David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move Over Lovejoy!, November 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Dealing in Murder: A Molly Doyle Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

If you're an antique lover who loves mysteries...or a mystery lover who loves antiques...this is one of the best I've read in years. Ms. Flinn obviously knows her antiques, more than I can say for some of the other so-called mystery writers using antique dealers as their progagonist. Molly Doyle is refreshing and sassy all at once. A woman of her time, she isn't even intimidated by the former big time cop from L.A. who suspects her of murder. I particularly enjoyed the inside info about artists and how fakes are done. Oh, and what not to do at an auction. Her setting of Carmel, California is great and I can't wait to visit it and look for Tosca's and Daria's restaurant. They probably don't exist, except in the mystery, but I sure wish they did.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. You won't be sorry. I can't wait for the next one. Hurry up, Ms. Flinn! I'm tired of Antique Roadshow re-runs.