Customer Reviews

Design for Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 2)

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Carolyn Hart write wonderful stories set in the South. I always like the way Annie name drops about detective fiction at the start and the beginning or each story, but rarely in the middle. I always wonder if the author does this on purpose or is just the way story develops. This is a find follow-up to Death On Demand, although there are parts that are overly predictable and
sterotypic.

I've read several books of the Annie and Max series and generally enjoy them immensely. I'm trying to fill the gaps in order. I'm glad I'd read several other books in this series first otherwise, I'd probably not read anymore.

Basically, Design for Murder, is too designed. The blueprint is laidout entirely too clearly to be entertaining. I know the classic cozy has a list of suspects but it felt like that list was repeated over and over and over again in this book. I second the reviewer who commented that it was hard to care who murdered the victim. Indeed, I was simply annoyed that it took about half of the book to knock the obnoxious woman off.

As for the "name-dropping", that is precisely the signature of this series. This is a series for mystery addicts to enjoy all of the references to writers and characters. I get about half of them and there's always a little sense of being "in the club" when I know what she's talking about. However, this is also the reason I haven't passed these books on to my husband. All the references to Poirot and Wimsey and the like wouldn't mean a thing to him.

Bottom-line: Not the best book in an otherwise good series.

Second in the Death on Demand mystery series revolving around the owner of a bookstore by the same name that specializes in mysteries.

My Take
A righteous murder of a nasty old bitch who terrorized everyone around her...and anyone else she could hurt. It's great fun reading Hart's stories if only for the list of mystery authors, series, and titles she sprinkles throughout the text. -I keep stopping to add `em to my list!

The Story
That bitch Sylvia enticing Tim into her bed and away from hers! Well, we'll see about that! The Prichard Museum simply won't allow Tim's paintings to travel as he has requested. Then the board wants a mystery nights! Well...at least she will have control over who is hired! Then that niece of hers! About to make the biggest mistake of her life.

Annie almost refused to create the mystery nights for Corinne Prichard Webster--the woman was so incredibly obnoxious. She's just lucky that the challenge was enough to overcome her attitude as Annie bubbles into plans trying to winnow down the possibilities. It certainly is a challenge creating a Mystery Nights that plays up the house-and-garden tour for Chastain and Annie has created one plot already when the fax comes through changing everything only for Annie to discover the sabotage.

Yet more changes and a firm hold on her temper allows Annie to finalize the details and set the scene just before she finds the body. As hated as the woman is, there are way too many suspects even as the bigoted Chief Wells focuses in on the person who found the body and ignores all the many clues of this Peyton Place.

The Characters
Annie Laurence is the owner of Death on Demand, a bookstore specializing in mysteries, on Broward's Rock in South Carolina. Max Darling is a wealthy lawyer who has been after Annie to marry him. He's followed her here and is determinedly setting siege--he wants a big wedding in his hometown while Annie is holding out for a smaller, more intimate wedding here. Ingrid is Annie's assistant in the shop.

Corinne Prichard Webster sees herself as the queen of Chastain society believing that she is the only arbiter of how any one may live their lives. And as the leader of the Board, she has the power. Gail Prichard is her niece and "about to throw her life away" just like her father.

Other Board members include Lucy, a woman whom Corinne manipulated into not marrying her brother Cameron; Roscoe Merrill, a lawyer, and his wife Jessica; Dr. John Sanford; Miss Dora, an ancient upright bitch; and, the very flamboyant Sybil.

Mrs. Brawley is a mystery reading fanatic willing to do anything to win. Idell Gordon is the innkeeper who saw and wanted too much. Bobby Frazier is the very careful reporter attempting to throw dust in everyone's eyes to hide his attraction.

The Cover
The cover is murder with Poe's raven, a skull weeping on the side of a glass, and a red dagger lying on the wicker table as Agatha the cat looks on from a background of shelves and shelves of books.

The title, Design for Murder, refers to the Mystery Nights designed by Annie.

Design for Murder book two was a push for me to get through- I was excited to read the 2nd in the series after enjoying the first(Death on Demand).
There were no surprises in the plot and easy to figure out "who dunnit" and it seemed like the other suspects were very very thin with little motive.
I bought some of the rest of the series after reading the first so hope they improve!

The suspense picks up for the second Death on Demand,"Design for Murder." Annie Laurence is dithering about a wedding to Max Darling, she wants small--he wants big into the fray comes Chastain socialite Corinne Prichard Webster with an offer no budding mystery bookstore owner can refuse. Corinne wants Annie to design a murder to be staged during their annual garden/home show, the parts to be played by local citizens with prizes and clues to rake in funds for the Historical Society.
Before Annie's carefully planned production begins someone is out to sabotage Corinne's plans with a poison-pen letter exposing all the sins of the actors. Then Corinne ends up floating in her own garden pond.
The pace is fast as Annie and Max race to save her program and discover a killer. Lots of southern tradition is found within the pages of "Design for Murder."
Writing as a Small BusinessUnder the Liberty OakSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelGuns Across the Rio: A Texas Ranger in Old Mexico

What a great mystery - it was almost Perry Mason-like with seeing all the suspects at the beginning of the book and why they would have a motive to kill Corinne. Also like Perry Mason you had to pay attention to what was going on. It was a good believable story. I really enjoyed it and cannot wait to start the next book in the series.

This 2nd in the DEATH ON DEMAND series has an intriguing set of intro chapters which compete with the brilliance of the pilot's opening salvos.

After the classic-mystery jazz-steps of the intro chapter pair sat me down in my chair, I, of course, couldn't resist reading further. As I did so, I couldn't help but notice that the contrast of the society maven's chill to Annie's enthusiasm was dramatic and effective.

Transition-ed from that point of awe, I was warmed into the story by Annie's reaction to being asked to do a mystery program and get paid $1000. As noted above, Annie's "badee, badee, badee" enthusiasm was an engaging contrast to the perfect portrayal of the repulsive chill of the society maven. What with the up angle in which Carinne carried her rigid, frigid chin, she'd never develop horizontal neck wrinkles, though vertical, hair-line-fissures would likely apply in rivulets. And, I'd bet money I have not, that one of her eyebrows was spring loaded.

A couple questions came to me early in the reading:

-- Was Annie going to use the Maven as victim and Roscoe as murderer, as a reality switch to the victim and perpetrator in the murder mystery game Annie was being paid to produce?

-- How would the contention between Annie & Max over having a fancy Vs intimate wedding relate to the plots-within-plots, and their resolution?

Hart entertainingly dramatized Annie's cracking out of the egg of an endearing, feisty childhood (even as a "mature," brilliant, and independent young woman), with Max as a backdrop of the truly mature, already-arrived one in the self-actualization game. In this sense, the irony of Annie's compulsive responsibility bounced off Max's (seeming) childish nonchalance was well wrought. And, Hart's periodically designing Annie as wrong and Max as right could be taken as proof that Hart's healthy self-depreciation and personal generosity has cancelled any egotism or arrogance in her character.

I believe that those tendencies seem to magnetically attract themselves to most creative persons; maybe it's the charisma they're charged (up) with. Me too. I, I, I be creative! Gotta get these thumbs out of my vest. But, only because it's hard to type that way. "Me, me, me." (Practicing my operatic slavos. Doe & Ray are continually dogging my voice, trying to get ahead.)

The type of sexual tension toyed with between Annie & Max is refreshing. It sometimes feels delightfully (and effectively) staged (like culinary mysteries collecting quotas of cooking hits, which I, for one, appreciate, yum intended). Hart's romantic sidelines are fun, cute, warming, and absolutely appropriate for her characters and genre. I appreciate the fact that the innuendos aren't obviously spiced for reader turn on ... Hart's style of sexual undertone is Leo's childlike, playful toying with male-female differences; it's not Scorpio's intense and steamy, heavy-hitting below the belt (which has been well-placed and hotly-paced in the romance genre). In my opinion Hart's style of light, Leo romance suits this series to a "T" ... or maybe I should say, to a steam-rolled-over "R."

It was worth my time to savor Hart's artistically portrayed characterizations. An especially luminous introductory description of the society maven's niece follows:

>>The young woman was as clearly limned as if by a spotlight, her attractive auburn hair glistening like the flank of a sundrenched Kentucky colt, her delicate, anguished face a study in anger. <<

My first flash upon reading the segment around the above quote was of Daisy in THE GREAT GATSBY, though of course Daisy is lifetimes jaded while Gail is a fresh pick (which is not meant to diminish either character, it's merely to attempt to get the contrast clear while the comparison is made).

Another great character description:

>> Corinne looked every day of her fifty-nine years, her cheekbone drawn so tight that hairline wrinkles marched on her upper lip like a stockade fence. <<

So was it the facelift or the upward chin habit which did Corinne(`s youthful plushness, if she ever had any) in?

In this second in the DOD series, I was captivated and literarily impressed by its use of various levels of mysteries as an echoing mirror-within-mirror, reality-within-reality. This novel could go undercover as an entertaining class on the genre, which I was certainly able to benefit from, because I'm not anywhere near as well read as most buffs of classic mysteries.

Some readers have reported feeling irritated or insecure at the mention and plot use of such an awesome collection of reality mystery titles, many of which are known only to mystery buffs of the first water. I can understand that natural sensitivity. Yet, I see that situation as an opportunity to introduce myself into the nuances of the genre, and to spotlight other series I might like to explore. I also receive a pleasant hit of recognition when one of the titles or authors happen to be one I've actually read. This constant "listing" of mysteries also allows me to know I'll be able to return to reread this series and get even more out of it as I progress in my consumption of offerings in the genre. So much to look forward to. Even with my having read so few classic mysteries, I had no trouble keeping up with the story and retaining a solid and strong interest within full entertainment regalia.

The resolution of tangents, sidetracks, mysteries within mysteries was satisfyingly, almost uncannily smooth. The mood-and-action to wrap, as expected, held several surprises and variations on mystery form schematics. The style was an opposite type of drama from the resolution of the pilot to the series, in which Annie & Max dug into a hilarious bull-dog standoff (after the murder-mood-run had its due).

Overall, to me, the style of DBD gave evidence that Hart's confidence in this series had leaped beyond growing pains, as she seemed to be taking her time developing the plot-lines without losing a Quantum of reader interest. The graceful flow exposed an author absolutely relaxed in her craft, certain of its guarantee to result in reader involvement and appreciation. This isn't to imply that Hart hadn't been a fully-seasoned author for many years prior to this novel. It's merely to note that the author's relaxation with developing characters and machinations seemed to show off a well seated rhythm and stride here.

More than most, this novel showed me why mystery afficionados reportedly reread stories in this genre. There's enough in each offering that a reread will continually surface segments which appear to have been written in invisible ink the first time around.

Well done Oh Mystery Queen, who knows how to honor the gestalt of her genre.

Linda G. Shelnutt

P.S. I probably shouldn't post 3 reviews on Thanksgiving morning. Makes it too obvious what kind of life I live. Furthermore, my holiday trilogy will probably sit on Amazon's pages in lonely, zero-vote solitude, sans coveted spotlights, until at least a week after everyone's finished burping up turkey. Okay, here's mine, offered even before I get to the oven on time. Burp. "Buzzzzz." (That's the stove alarm.)