Customer Reviews

Death Walked In (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 18)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Browards' Rock, a South Carolina Low Country island, is home to Max and Annie Darling and a winter community of residents whose paths, by necessity or choice, often cross. So the islanders are understandably shaken when a stash of rare and valuable gold coins is stolen from one of the wealthier families. Following upon the heels of this crime are a series of home invasions and, most shocking of all, a cold blooded murder. The Darlings are determined to find the true culprit.

Death Walked In is a rather prosaic title for such a colorful story, but as it turns out, this mystery isn't much more than ordinary. Hart is a competent writer, but the herrings are so red that the question of whodunnit does not remain mysterious for long. Nevertheless, with all the oyster shell walks, snakes in the woods, ferries, palmettos, and salty sea air, she does a creditable job of evoking a pleasant atmosphere while providing an agreeable few hours of light reading.

In this classic mystery, with a South Carolina sea island backdrop, drama centers on the high-risk theft of precious gold coins, the tragedy of murder, and the price that evil must pay.

DEATH WALKED IN delivers all the twists, turns, and thrills that Carolyn Hart fans look forward to. Annie and Max are restoring an antebellum mansion. She is feminine . . . and strong. He is sophisticated . . . and compassionate. Annie says, "I wish our beautiful house wasn't part of a crime." Max comforts her, "Every old house has had its good days and its bad days. We're going to have good days. But we can't ignore trouble when we're right in the middle of it."

Even supporting characters leap off the page. I liked the high school principal who "knew his students, the ones who failed as well as those who succeeded, and he never stopped trying to reach the ones who needed help."

When 'Death Walked In' at the end of the mystery, the encounter was unforgettable.

This is the 18th book in the award-winning Death on Demand (bookstore) series--a treat for readers who appreciate fine literary writing that makes your heart race with suspense. Fun to read and the perfect solution for gift giving.

Laurie Banton, book reviewer, 04/25/08

Carolyn Hart is back with another book in the Death on Demand Mystery series. Annie Darling, owner of "the best bookstore north of Miami", and her husband Max live on Broward's Rock, a beautiful fictitious island off the coast of South Carolina. They are refurbishing the lovely old Franklin house which becomes a pivotal part in the mystery. First some very valuable coins are stolen and then Annie receives a panicky call from Max's secretary who says that a woman called and said that she hid something valuable in the Franklin house. This is the beginning of a trail of murder and deception, as Annie and Max try to find the perpetrators while dodging some dangerous situations themselves. The devoted Darlings are the center of a group of interesting characters, and Carolyn Hart never fails to entertain mystery fans with her "closed room" technique, borrowed from Agatha Christie.

February in Broward's Rock, a South Carolina sea island is supposed to be quiet and relatively crime free now that the tourists have gone home. However business mogul Geoffrey Grant had much of his coin collection stolen and the appraised value was over half a million dollars. Max Darling, who almost got convicted for murder by a damsel in distress who elaborately framed him, got a call from a woman who needs help at his office Confidential Commissions.

He refuses to take the call and comes to regret it when wife Anne goes to see the caller Gwen Jamison. Max's assistant called Anne and told her that Gwen put something in the Franklin House which Max and Anne are rebuilding and where Gwen was once the housekeeper. When Anne goes to Gwen's home she finds her dead body on the floor. A woman calls Anne who goes to the dock at night to meet her; the woman tells her she knows who stole the coins because she saw the person bury the cache at her graveyard. Two more deaths follow over the next few days causing Max and Anne to investigate, not aware the killer is watching them.

DEATH WALKED IN is an exciting investigative tale with a husband and wife team as the main protagonists. They are the reason the Death On Demand series is popular as their team-up smoothly blends amateur sleuth and professional detective elements and they are bold enough to follow the clues wherever they may lead. The romance has not gone out of their marriage and is interwoven into the storyline. Carolyn Hart has written a charming and well constructed mystery that her fans will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

I really liked Death Walked In. I have read many of Carolyn Hart's books and this is one of my favorite. Some of her others I have found difficult to read because she mentions many mystery authors I do not know and it is confusing. But this book she did not do that as often. I did guess the killer about half way through the book and normally I can never guess. But still a good read.

I love Carolyn Hart's books. I sent this one to my mom and she loved it and wanted more. She's 89 and reads almost a book a day. I'm always thrilled to find a writer she likes who has written a lot of books.

DEATH WALK IN is the 18th addition to Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand Series. This series has not only a well established plot line, but provides hours of reading and search pleasure. If you are interest in mysteries and looking for new authors and titles a visit to Annie Darling's Death on Demand is worth the trip.
Max Darling is recovering from being badly stung by a set up and refuses to take a call from Gwen Jamison. Max's secretary alerts Annie who rushes to Gwen's home to discover her dying. Clues and circumstances lead the police to arrest Gwen's son Robert, but Max must redeem himself and works to prove the young man's innocence. A horde of stolen coins are at the root of the murders and they are reported to be hidden in the old home Annie and Max are restoring. Any way they turn they are involved. Favorite characters from the series are Max's mother, Annie's best customer and their island's resident mystery writer are off on a cruise, but with modern technology they are able to lend assistance.Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil WarQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

Once a year, the extended family of Geoffrey Grant gathers on Broward Island to celebrate his birthday. This year, just as after the entire family arrives, someone breaks into the Grant home during the night and steals a valuable coin collection. That same night, Gwen Jamison hears a fox trying to get into her chicken house. When she goes out to shoo the fox off, she sees someone she knows burying something in her family's cemetery. Max and Annie Darling become involved when Gwen calls Max. Max doesn't take the call, but Annie follows up and finds Gwen murdered.

This book takes me back to my girlhood and my early days of Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew reading. Max and Annie are restoring a historic old house, with a secret hiding place, and a spooky past, complete with a book written about it. There is a missing treasure-the stolen coin collection, that may have been hidden in the Darlings' house. The potential suspects are a colorful cast of characters. There is of coarse the entire Grant family who appear to love Geoffrey, but do they? None of the children are actually his biological children, and they each have their own problematic pasts. What about Gwen's two sons? Would one of them have stolen the coins and then murdered his own mother to protect himself? There are even a couple of other people who are not part of Broward Island's regular residents that are somewhat suspicious.

Hart's latest entry in her Death on Demand series will bring smiles to your face. While this book does not have much of the regular Death on Demand Bookstore crowd or the connections as most of the books in the series, fans will be pleased that the five paintings depicting five mysteries are still included for you to puzzle over. Readers new to Hart, as well as her long-time fans, will find Death Walks In to be the perfect way to spend a summer's day.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

This latest in the Death on Demand series is a good one. But again, it's about the 18th book or so, so it may be better to start earlier somewhere in the series. That way you get to know Annie and Max Darling, and some of their wonderful friends on Broward's Rock. We don't see much of the three women in this book (Laurel, Max's mother, Emma, the island's famous mystery writer, and Henny, Annie's best friend) because they are apparently on a cruise somewhere in the Caribbean. But we see Annie and Max as they are trying to finish off their wonderful antebellum house. Someone has hidden some stolen Double Eagle coins somewhere in their unfinished house, and people are dying everywhere as the search for the coins continues. There's lots of blind alleys and red herrings in this wonderful off-beat cozy. I am all caught up in the series, so now I have to wait for another year for the next one, and that's a long time.

The newest entry in the popular Death on Demand series by Carolyn Hart returns the reader to Broward's Rock, described as the "loveliest of the South Carolina sea islands," and indeed the writer makes the town sound charming as its flora and fauna are lovingly described. The focal point of the action is the historic ante-bellum Franklin House which Annie and Max Darling are refurbishing. As the tale opens, Max is en route to the old house when he receives a call from a frightened-sounding woman seeking his help. Max runs Confidential Commissions, described as an agency devoted to assisting problems in solving problems. Insistent that it is not a detective agency, and having had a particularly nasty experience the last time he heeded a similar cry for help, he instructs his secretary to tell the woman to call the police. When the woman's dead body is discovered by Annie, his wife, shortly afterwards, he is overwhelmed with, as Annie describes it, "a good man's concern that he'd walked by on the other side of the road, leaving a helpless woman in jeopardy."

Though he might not have been able to prevent her death, Annie and Max determine to find the murderer. There seems to be a connection between the murder and the theft of some very valuable coins from the home of the dead woman's employer, the esteemed Grant family, only a few days prior. The convoluted relations between the various family members are exposed as the investigation continues, and another murder occurs. The killer appears to be "a shadowy figure who seemed to be able to move unseen leaving death behind."

The Darlings are as dogged as one might hope in their efforts to uncover the identity of the thief and the murderer [are they one and the same?]. Along the way we again meet two of the series' most delightful characters: Agatha, the elegant black cat who resides in the bookstore Annie owns, Death on Demand, described as the finest mystery bookstore north of Miami, and Dorothy L, the fluffy white cat owned by Max, named after arguably two of the best practitioners of the art of the small-town mystery, in whose footsteps this author