Customer Reviews

Death at High Tide: A Jersey Shore Mystery

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Really strong mystery from an author that I've just discovered...Recommend her first book also - "Dead Man's Float." "Death at High Tide" really brought the Jersey Shore to life -- and I've never even been there! It keeps you guessing right up to the last page -- the main character, Ann Hardaway is a wonderful heroine, and I couldn't even guess who done it. Terrific work!

Mallory Loving has already had her star rise and fall in the competitive world of Hollywood. She's returned to Oceanside Heights to film what will hopefully be her comeback picture. Meanwhile, Anne Hardaway is trying to get the information she needs to ghost Mallory's autobiography. The star promises information, but doesn't really deliver. Things aren't easy on the set, either, as accidents keep delaying the filming. Then Mallory vanishes, only to show up dead. None of her co-workers on the film seem upset at this turn of events, and Anne is sure that solving the murder will be just the ending her book needs. But will she be able to sift through the suspects and find the real killer?

This is the second Jersey shore mystery staring Anne Hardaway. The plot starts out a little slow, but quickly gains speed and doesn't slow down until the climax. There were enough twists to have me completely confused until the very last page. I love the resort town setting; the author makes it seem very inviting. The biggest problem is the little time returning characters get. Anne interacts almost exclusively with the suspects. While they're interesting, getting to see her with a few friends helps define her character better.

Anyone looking for a fun setting with complex plots need look no further. Time spent on the Jersey Shore with Anne is fun but certainly not relaxing.

The conventions of women-written mysteries can be every bit as restrictive and stereotypical of those that had been written by men for decades. Instead of the seedy detective in the rundown office with a bottle in his desk, there's the single working woman living in an attractive area, sometimes with a police officer boyfriend to help, with a job that brings her regularly in contact with corpses. Oh, and no kids.

"Death at High Tide" might serve as the perfect example on the genre. Free-lance writer Anne Hardaway lives by herself in a beautiful Victorian in a small ocean-side town in southern New Jersey. A movie crew has come to her town, which gives her the opportunity to help its star, Mallory Loving, ghost her memoirs. The one variation from the mystery template is that the cop boyfriend is replaced by an architect who's working in Europe and pleading with her to come visit.

Researching the life of this platinum blonde diva takes Hardaway among the usual suspects, including La Loving's handsome singer/actor husband who may be having a fling or two on the side, her ambitious assistant who's angling for something greater, the director with a shady past, the boyfriend Loving left behind who still holds a flame for her and Mallory's twin sister, who never left the shore and became a bingo-playing spinster teacher.

Beth Sherman is an experienced magazine and newspaper writer and "Death at Hide Tide" pops along with plenty of plot twists to satisfy the most committed mystery reader. While there's too much reliance on cliches -- Hardaway is threatened several times with vague unspecificied variations on "you'll be sorry" if she publishes some of the more risque factoids she uncovers, and her fear of losing her publishing contract seems doubtful to any writer aware that the tabloids would pay handsomely for what Hardaway uncovers -- such expectations for books like these are never high to begin with. Their purpose is to keep the reader entertained, and "Death at High Tide" does that. Besides

This is the second book in the Jersey Shore mysteries with Anne Hardaway as the heroine. I started the series because I spent my summers at the Jersey Shore, and I thought that this would be a refreshing theme in an inundated mystery market. While the descriptions of the shore are accurate and well-done, there is nothing special or remarkable about the series to spur the reader to continue. Anne is rather one-dimensional; you don't really get to know her. There's little emotion from her, no humor, and little interpersonal interaction. It's as if she's just going through the motions of trying to solve the mystery, which is uninteresting itself. The characters are predictable and typical Hollywood types, all unlikable. I had to force myself to finish. If a new mystery series is to succeed, the main character has to be fully developed so that the reader cares what happens to her. In a continuing series, the supporting characters should be interesting and likable. This series doesn't have either.

I read this book first and then went to find the others in the series. I am happy that I found Beth Sherman's books because they are very entertaining. I really like the main character, Ann Hardaway, who has an interesting job as a ghostwriter for various types of books.

Ghostwriter Anne Hardaway is ghosting the autobiography of movie star Mallory Loving, who is in town doing her latest movie, but the conservative townsfolk of Oceanside Heights are appalled at decadence the star has brought into their midst and the fact that Loving grew up there, married a local, then dumped him is another reason for the town to resent her.

Mallory and her ego plague the production and when she vanished, then turns up dead, nobody seems to care very much and the death is ruled accidental. But the star had been repeatedly threatened and Anne suspects foul play, and the more questions she asks, the more she's sure of it, because it seems there is someone who will stop at nothing to keep her quiet. Secrets abound, but is there one worth killing for? Can Anne find out before she becomes a victim herself?

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Save your money on this one. Very uninteresting and the ending is so crazy, you'll be annoyed that you bothered to finish it. Still don't even know who's alive and who's dead, nor do I care.