Death Served Up Cold [Mass Market Paperback]

B.J. Oliphant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1994

When a mysterious guest dies at Shirley McClintock's Santa Fe guest house, the other guests are blissfully unconcerned. The crazy lady in Ditch House goes her crazy way; her drunken companion continues to drink; and the middle-aged pair continue to enjoy the gentle landscape. But Shirley senses something wicked just around the corner. Like cold-blooded murder. And a terrifying evil coming closer and closer to her peaceful abode . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the latest Shirley McClintock mystery (Dead in the Scrub), Oliphant's 6'3", nearly 60-year-old, former FBI agent, has begun a new life as innkeeper on an old ranch just north of Santa Fe, N. Mex. along with her 14-year-old adopted daughter Allison. Despite McClintock's painful recovery from a knee operation, everything seems to be falling into place at Rancho del Valle, when a guest dies mysteriously, leaving behind only her name on the ledger, a phone credit card number and a car without license plates. The sullen, sensitive McClintock wonders who she was and why the other guests seem unaffected by the death. Oliphant (aka Sheri S. Tepper) fills her mystery with characters facing their own hidden dramas, including McClintock, who aside from the murder, faces the threat of losing Allison. Teen pregnancy, the Pope's rejection of contraception and his criticism of women for not embracing patriarchal religion, controversies over delayed memory and McClintock's obsession with a documentary on the Salem witch hunts also come in to play. Oliphant's occasionally heavy-handed point is that between the talks shows, the tabloids and the evening news, nothing sounds too unreal to be true anymore. As her heroine says, "I'm afraid we've got a generation of citizens who are illiterate in science but summa cum laude in superstition."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

When a mysterious guest dies at Shirley McClintock's Santa Fe guest house, the other guests are blissfully unconcerned. The crazy lady in Ditch House goes her crazy way; her drunken companion continues to drink; and the middle-aged pair continue to enjoy the gentle landscape. But Shirley senses something wicked just around the corner. Like cold-blooded murder. And a terrifying evil coming closer and closer to her peaceful abode . . .

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (October 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449148963
• ISBN-13: 978-0449148969
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.5 x 3.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #882,905 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 Well-written whodunit with intelligent, likable characters, December 26, 2000

By 

Sheila L. Beaumont (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Death Served Up Cold (Mass Market Paperback)

Shirley McClintock, J.Q. and their 14-year-old foster daughter, Allison, have an interesting assortment of visitors at their newly acquired guest ranch in northern New Mexico. The story involves a woman who dies suddenly of a mysterious illness, a New Age "crazy lady," some odd forgetfulness on Shirley's part, greedy relatives who want custody of Allison, witch-hunts, and a psychiatrist who recovers so-called repressed memories of childhood abuse and Satanism. The solution resembles that of a certain Agatha Christie mystery (I won't say which one). If you enjoy a good, entertaining whodunit with intelligent, likable characters and lots of lively conversation, be sure to read this (and the rest of the series). If you like this, you'll probably also like the mysteries written by the same author under the name A.J. Orde.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars She Checked In but Death Checked Her Out, August 20, 2002

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Served Up Cold (Mass Market Paperback)

B. J. Oliphant is also A. J. Orde and Sheri Tepper. She is probably best known for her books published as Tepper, but her Shirley McClintock Mysteries should not be ignored.

Shirley McClintock is a retired high level government employee, who has retreated to Taos to own and operate a guest ranch. The story opens with one of her guests having a medical emergency. Shirley and her good friend J.Q. rush her to the hospital where they discover that they know almost nothing about Alicia Tremble.

Meanwhile, her peace is further threatened by the sudden reappearance of her foster daughter's aunt and uncle, who had heretofore been content to have Shirley take on the responsibility of raising their niece.

When Alicia Tremble dies, however, it suddenly becomes necessary that Shirley, J.Q., and their friend Xianthippe Minging discover who Alicia Tremble was and who might have wanted her dead. Shirley discovers that her comfortable life on the Rancho del Valle is more vulnerable than she would have ever guessed.

Oliphant writes in an oblique style that gives the reader all of the information but demands some work on the reader's part. Everything is explained in the end, but what dedicated mystery reader wants to be spoonfed the answer? It is a pleasure to watch the author draw together a handful of separate strands and twist a thick rope of a plot out of them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting series with deep and thoughtful characters, September 20, 2000

By 

R. Kelly Wagner "[e-mail]" (MD, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Served Up Cold (Mass Market Paperback)

This is not the first book in Oliphant's (who is also A.J.Orde and Sherri Tepper) series about Shirley McClintock and her household, but it does bring back characters from earlier books. Shirley McClintock runs a guest ranch, along with her live-in companion, JQ; a retired friend, Xanthippe, who also lives with them, and Shirley's adopted daughter Allison. Besides the main plot, which involves an almost-anonymous guest dying after Shirley and JQ rush her to the hospital, there's also a subplot in which we find out more about Allison's family.

Semi-"spoiler" (don't read this paragraph if you want absolutely no hint as to the resolution of the plot) - Oliphant manages to neatly skewer both UFO/alien encounter nuts, and "repressed memory" therapists who see Satanism everywhere. If you like clear, logical thinking about these issues, you'll enjoy how they are brought into the plot and then treated as the pseudoscience they are.