11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointment after "Death on Demand", May 18, 2000
By A Customer
I read "Death on Demand" (the first of this series) and absolutely loved it. Then I read this book, the second in the series, and it left me flat. I literally didn't care who killed the victim. After thinking about why this book left me bored, I think part of it was that it was not set on Broward's Island, it was set in a town called Chastain, South Carolina. So Annie and Max were taken out of their "element." Another thing that left me puzzled was that after I read "Death on Demand" I was eager to see how Max finally won Annie over, but we never get to see that, because it is clear right from the beginning of this book that they are engaged. I just wish I knew what happened between "Death on Demand" and "Design for Murder" to cause Annie to make up her mind.
However, Max and Annie are charming as usual in this book and I do intend to continue reading the rest of this series. Unlike the other reviewer, I LOVED the literary name-dropping, it has really made me add a lot of great mystery authors to my reading list I otherwise might not have heard of.
In summary, I still will be a Carolyn Hart fan, although I felt I could have skipped this book.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Annie plans a mystery night, May 25, 2002
Annie Laurance, proprietor of the book store Murder on Demand, is delighted to be asked to put on a mystery night as part of a celebration of the history of Chastain, South Carolina. She is not so pleased at the prospect when she meets Corinne Webster who is in charge of the event. Corinne is a rude and arrogant person who has made enemies of half of the town. It is not surprising, when Corinne is found dead, that there is no shortage of suspects. Unfortunately, the police chief focuses in on Annie as his main suspect and seems unwilling to look any further. As a result, Annie and her fiance, Max Darling, have extra motivation to solve this murder. Annie puts herself in danger by exposing the murderer and the ending is bittersweet.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome to a southern mystery night!, July 17, 2006
This second in the Death on Demand series is a good, solid mystery. We still get that wonderful name-dropping from the world of "mystery fiction", and we get Annie planning a murder-mystery surprise for a small Southern town's annual spring celebrations. And no one is more surprised than Annie and Max when a real mystery occurs in the little town of Chastain. As they delve into motives and opporturnites they find more secrets in this little town than they ever dreamed. It was fun reading about their efforts to solve the mystery of the death of one of Chastain's leading citizens, while Annie's scripted plot ran through the book.I think I'm going to enjoy this series.
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