Design for Murder [Mass Market Paperback]

G. Carolyn Hart (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (1989)
• ASIN: B000TCXVF0
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Carolyn Hart writes the Death on Demand series set in a mystery bookstore on a South Carolina sea island and the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series featuring a lively redheaded ghost. Coming in 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime will be DEATH COMES SILENTLY, 22nd in the Death on Demand series, and WHAT THE CAT SAW, fist in the series featuring Nela Farley who has an uncanny sense of cats' thoughts.

She is also the author of several WWII novels, including ESCAPE FROM PARIS which is now available for the first time in its complete uncut version. Escape from Paris is the story of two sisters who defy the Gestapo to help British fliers avoid capture.

In Ghost at Work, Bailey Ruth returns to earth to help someone in trouble. She moves a body, investigates a murder, saves a marriage, prevents a suicide, and--in a fiery finale--rescues a child who knows too much. In Merry, Merry Ghost, Bailey Ruth protects a little boy from danger. In Ghost in Trouble, Bailey Ruth tries to corral a wilful woman determined to play hunt-the-killer. Coming in 2013 is HIJACKED GHOST which puts Bailey Ruth at risk of ever returning to Heaven.

Letter from Home, a WWII novel set on the home front, received the Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2003. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. Thirteen-year-old Gretchen Gilman is working for the small-town newspaper during the hot summer of 1944. Murder occurs on the street where she lives, forever changing her life and the lives of those involved.

Hart was one of 10 mystery authors featured at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC, in 2003 for Letter from Home and again in 2007 for Set Sail for Murder, 7th in the Henrie O series. In Set Sail for Murder (new in paperback March 2008), Henrie O joins a troubled family on a Baltic cruise and death is an unwelcome passenger.

Hart has been nominated 9 times for the Agatha Award for Best Novel and has won 3 times. In 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic. She will be the International Guest of Honor at Bloody Words in Toronto on June 6-8, 2008.

Hart is a native of Oklahoma City, a journalism graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and a former president of Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and American Crime Writers League.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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

This review is from: Design for Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Annie plans a mystery night, May 25, 2002

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Design for Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to a southern mystery night!, July 17, 2006

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Design for Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.