Customer Reviews

Decorated To Death: A Simon Kirby-Jones Mystery

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Simon Kirby-Jones joins his vampire lover in eternity, but creatures of the night are fickle. When Trevor breaks up with Simon, he gives him Laurel Cottage in the English Village of Snupperton Mumsley and Simon moves to the other side of the Atlantic. He fits in well with the other residents thanks to the small white pills he takes that allows him to go out in sunlight and kills the need for human blood. He writes novels and non-fiction under pseudonyms while his assistant Sir Giles Blitherington wants more than a business relationship with the attractive vampire.

The village is agog that Zeke Harwood, host of a home decorating TV show, comes to Blithering Hall to redecorate one of the rooms. Zeke goes out of his arrogant way to be unpleasant to everyone including his host and hostess, his television producer, his personal assistant, his lover and even his sister. When someone murders the man Simon doesn't want his assistant or his mother considered as viable suspects. In the tradition of Poirot, he investigates using resources the police don't have, to figure out who killed a man that everyone hated.

Anyone who likes an upbeat British cozy with a vampire twist will love DECORATED TO DEATH. Dean James has created a charming series that readers sink their teeth into without getting bloody since the protagonist never drinks any blood so the vampiric elements are somewhat limited. The hero is a suave and debonair cozy type figure who can charm the birds out of the trees and he uses that sophistication to worm information out of various suspects. This mystery manages to be charming and endearing, a one of a kind series.

Harriet Klausner

I started reading this and rather enjoyed Simon Kirby-Jones, the witty American author residing in an English village, before I realized he was a vampire. Then I thought, "I can't believe I'm reading a mystery about a gay vampire who solves village mysteries!"

A main plot line was rather cliched, in that the famous decorator was obnoxious, cruel and hated by virtually all who came in contact with him. (Hmmm. I wonder who's going to be murdered here . . .") But the writing and characters were entertaining enough to overcome the cliche and there were enough surprises to keep me going.

Okay, I don't believe this, but I'm looking for more in the Simon-Jones series - even tho I feel silly reading about a gay vampire. Just don't tell anyone, ok?

What could be better than a gay vampire who solves crimes? I found this tale immensely enjoyable, both as a mystery and as a way to immerse myself in English country life. The characters are delightful (or dreadful in the case of Zeke Harwood, the nasty decorator). The setting is charming. I found myself wanting to wander around the world of Snupperton Mumsley. Brew up a cup of hot tea and read this wonderful story. It's a perfect read for an inclement night. I've read every book in the series. Anyone who doesn't like them obviously suffers from deplorable taste.

Simon is invited to Gile's home to see a famous 'telly' reality decorator to the stars, redo Lady Prunella's drawing room being redone for the show.

Amidst screams of 'red' and 'drawing room' causes fainting spells and more. Much more, in fact, murder of the star decorator draped upon the sofa in Red!

Once again, Simon is asked for his unofficial help by Chief of police, Robin and unearths all types of sinister sins among the family of the decorator himself.

This book is humorous and keeps you wondering about a sub-plot brewing beneath the obvious. Is Simon to be disclosed for nefarious reasons?

I have read this entire series and must say It is one of the most original and totally delightful series to come my way. The main sleuth, Simon Krby-Jones. is not just a vampire...he is a gay vampire and it doesn't stop there. Simon although he can rise above anyone confronting him in any situation, he has some other quirks that I found quite interesting. He can go out during the day, with limitations. He does not sleep in a coffin. Mirrors...no problem. He just takes his daily quantity of pills and all the old vampire issues are a thing of the past.

I enjoyed the originality and fun spirit of this series and this main character so much I asked the author, Dean james, if he would PLEASE write another book for Simon Kirby-Jones and me. :)

Thank-you Dean James.

Ellen Rappaport
Largo, Florida

While many of the flaws which pestered the first episode of this series were no longer to be found in the second one and neither have reappeared here -that constant use of those double surnames, though...
I cannot say I am completely about the novel though.

Mr James decided to play the card of the witty parody of the sleuth stories and he lets his main hero explicitly mention the fact. This plot device though is not as funny as one could imagine though, at least not in the long run.
Simon looks again a little too self complacent and his dialogues with the handsome Inspector Chase are a lot less sparkling than they could have been. Even the sexual tension between him and the same inspector as well as that with Giles appear dimmer than they could have been.

A fun read, but less than expected, not to mention the annoying inconsistencies scattered here and there, such as a statement about Giles not being aware of his beauty followed by right the opposite one after no more than two pages.

Simon Kirby-Jones, like any other amateur detective worth his or her salt, has the fortunate habit of being in the right place at the wrong time. In the few months since he's moved from Texas to the quaint English village of Snupperton-Mumsley, Simon has stumbled over at least as many corpses as Murder She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher encounters on an average book tour. And like that grand dame of polite cozies, Simon too is a prolific writer, the author of well-respected historical biographies as well as two series of books, romances and mysteries, which he publishes pseudonymously. Enticing as his secret life of letters is, Simon's forays into lower-brow literature are not his only secret: he also happens to be a vampire, a gay vampire, in a world in which, however, medical advances have taken away much of the unpleasantness associated with that condition. Simon does try to limit his exposure to sunlight, and garlic remains a no-no, but he neither requires nor desires the blood-quaffing that has given generations of vampires a bad reputation. Or, at least, Simon never used to have such cravings....

In this third installment in Dean James' amusing series of vampire cozies, our gentlemanly undead protagonist finds himself in the uncomfortable position of gazing upon his acquaintances' pulsing neck veins with something approaching lust: the pills he takes thrice daily to ward off his vampiric impulses seem to be failing--a delicious development. There is also, of course, a murder: Zeke Harwood, the flamboyant host of the popular decorating show Très Zeke, is bludgeoned to death while redoing the drawing room of nearby Blitherington Hall.

Decorated to Death offers readers another good mystery. For those coming to the series for the first time, the author does a good job for the most part of weaving the necessary background information into his narrative, though further explanation of the woman Simon refers to as his Nemesis would have served even repeat readers well. Fans of the series will find the book most interesting for Simon's unwilling flirtation with traditional vampirism, and for his more welcome flirtation with his personal assistant, young aristocrat Giles Blitherington.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Talk about a special cup of tea--James serves up his own unique brew, a gay cozy with a sexy vampire protagonist, and along the way, he pays homage to past masters of the genre. Utterly delightful. Victor J. Banis, author of TALES FROM C.A.M.P., JACKIE'S BACK

I enjoy Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mystery series so I picked up this book. I was bored. Maybe it would have been better to start with the first book in the series, but a good book should be able to stand on its own. In this case, there was a distracting subplot about his pills and a Nemesis that was either a reference to an earlier book or preparing for a subsequent book.

The main characters, particularly Simon and Giles, came off as cariactures not "real" people and because of that did not capture my interest or affection. The plot itself was thin. I could not wait to be done reading. Based on this book, I will not be reading any of the others in the series.