Death on the River Walk [Hardcover]

Carolyn Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 1999

Carolyn Hart is one of America's best-loved mystery writers-a multiple award-winning architect of ingenious puzzles set in atmospheric locales, featuring men and women both intriguingly complex and achingly human. And no character is more complex or human than sixty-something sleuth Henrie O, whose decades of newspapering have taught her that every fact is suspect, but goodness can still be celebrated.

A frantic phone call from an old and dear friend on the other side of the world sends Henrie O to the fabled city of San Antonio, Texas, in search of her friend's devoted granddaughter, Iris Chavez. Iris had been working on San Antonio's famous River Walk at the family-owned Tesoros Gallery, a shop renowned for its unquestioned integrity, excellence, and the priceless treasures it hunts for its rich and famous patrons. Iris has disappeared without a word and hasn't been heard from since. Her humble apartment has been ransacked, yet nothing is missing. And nobody at Tesoros seems to care.

Hidden amid the exquisite objects in the gallery and among the many family members who run the business is a secret- a secret Henrie O must uncover if she is to find Iris. Interviews with the charming matriarch, Maria Elena Garza, who created the business decades earlier, and with her children and grandchildren reveal nothing. But Henrie O suspects that Rick, who is rumored to have been Iris's boyfriend, knows far more than he is willing to reveal. When an unsigned note summons Henrie O to the River Walk, she is stunned by what she finds. An ominous threat, followed by a horrifying murder, convinces her Iris is in terrible danger. Disgrace lies in wait for an old and respected business...and death waits for anyone who gets in the way.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the opening scenes of Death on the River Walk, the veteran journalist and crime solver Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins (better known to mystery lovers as Henrie O) has a rendezvous with the matriarch of a San Antonio family. She says of this encounter with Maria Elena Garza:

We regarded each other. Her hair was as dark as mine, though mine does not have a raven gloss. My face is the more lined, hers smooth with a creamy complexion. I'm afraid that through years of asking questions and so often hearing lies or distortions, perhaps my gaze is more skeptical than accepting. But in the warmth of her regard, I felt my own defenses crumbling. She looked at me with eyes that have surely seen as much as mine and yet there was an eagerness and a vivacity I have lost.

This perceptive self-knowledge gives Carolyn Hart's Henrie O books an extra ingredient not always present in mystery series--characters who display real-life emotions, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses, who we can easily empathize with.

The circumstances in which Henrie O meets with the woman are troubling to say the least. Maria Elena Garza owns an art gallery on San Antonio's River Walk, and one of her young female employees has disappeared. A member of the large Garza tribe is a prime suspect in the girl's vanishing act. Although the potential scenarios under consideration aren't particularly profound or surprising, the milieu (a lovely shop full of gorgeous objects), the characters, and the bracing Henrie O herself are well worth the price of admission. Other Henrie O books include Death in Lovers' Lane and Death in Paradise --Dick Adler

From Library Journal

Henrie O stumbles on a double murder at an art gallery in San Antonio.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (March 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380974150
• ISBN-13: 978-0380974153
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,623,011 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 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What A Fun Read!, May 20, 2001

By 

Michael Butts "as i see it" (Martinsburg, WV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death on the River Walk (Henrie O Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Carolyn Hart has delivered another fun addition to her Henrie O series. Ms. Hart has developed a wonderful character in her protagonist. There is something warm and inviting with Henrie O, kind of like a grandmother. The author has also developed her to be smart, brave and very observant. This makes for a very enjoyable series. Unlike Ms. Hart's Death of Demand series, this one is a bit more on the serious side, but not so much so that there is not funny moments. Also, Henrie gets to travel around to different locations. With this Ms. Hart adds the pleasure of regional interest into the story. This book is located in San Antonio, so the reader get all kinds of interesting facts about that great city and it's culture. Believe it or not, San Antonio has more going for it than the Alamo! Add all this together with Ms. Hart's good solid writing and the reader can be guaranteed a good and fun mystery. I would recommend any of Carolyn Hart's books to any one who enjoys a good mystery.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hurray for Henrie O, July 26, 2000

By 

Carol Zebb (Payson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death on the River Walk (Henrie O Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Carolyn Hart's "Death on the River Walk" is a thoroughly absorbing mystery offering tantalizing glimpses of San Antonio's River Walk. Among Ms. Hart's many strengths as a writer is the ability to make her readers part of the scene. One sees "sunlight striking through shifting cottonwood leaves, making filagree patterns on ... stone walks", one feels "soft, moist night air", and taste buds go into overdrive when she describes scrumptious dishes such as nachos with shrimp and black beans, or chalupas topped with a meat-and corn mixture ... Henrie O, a refreshingly mature heroine with a refreshingly contemporary outlook, is asked to look into the disppearance of her best friend's granddaughter. The trail leads her to Tesoros (Treasures), a River Walk gallery dealing primarily in Mexican art and antiquities. Ms. Hart shines in her knowledge and description of pieces such as pulque pitchers, Tlaquepaque style glazed pottery, Talavera tiles and Oaxacan carved, wooden animals. The Garza family, who has owned and run Tesoros for forty years, has an unassailable reputation in the art world. Why, then, are there hints of discord among its members? Is there a connection with the family to the theft of gold antiquities stolen from Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology? "Death on the River Walk" is tightly plotted, beautifully written, and a credit to this award winning author.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Murder on the River Walk has a great setting, an okay plot, July 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Death on the River Walk (Hardcover)

The best thing about the mystery is the setting, the San Antonio riverwalk and environs, the descriptions of the Mexican artwork available in the shops there. The plot is a little unbelievable ... the hunters of antiquities and the art collectors are compared to the Spanish conquistadors...