Customer Reviews

Dying to Sell (Real Estate Mysteries, No. 1)

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

 

 

In Fort Collins, Colorado Shamrock Realty realtor Kate Doyle detests having to sell the home of friends, attorney Mark and Amanda Schuster, who have filed for divorce. Mark wants to get rid of their joint house as soon as possible while Amanda wants the most money they can obtain. Kate works documents with Mark and promises to finish up later that day once she obtains Amanda's signature.

When Kate returns to see Mark, she is horrified to find him dead with a letter opener stuck through his throat. The police assume a crime of passion occurred; thus Amanda is the prime suspect as a rejected wife. Kate thinks otherwise and begins to investigate the activities of a lawyer she thought she knew as a friend. Instead she finds he had several affairs and pulled a land development ploy that angered perspective contractors. Unlike the local cops, Kate has a long list of suspects.

Although readers will doubt Kate would investigate especially since the corpse shook her to her bone marrow in spite of her best friend as the prime suspect, fans will be pleased with this fun amateur sleuth tale. Kate is shocked when she begins to see a radically different picture of someone she thought she knew merge as she finds Mark was a womanizer and applied questionable business ethics to transactions. The revelations come on top of thinking that Mark and Amanda were the poster couple for marriage before they ask her to sell their house as part of their divorce settlement. Maggie Sefton provides a wonderful who-done-it starring a shell-shocked layperson risking her life to prove her pal is innocent.

Harriet Klausner

Kate Doyle, newbie Colorado realtor, knew that her job could be complicated, but when dealing with the sale of her friends' home, little did she know that it could be deadly. When Kate arrives at Mark's home for him to sign the sales papers she find him in the elegantly appointed library with a letter opener sticking out of his neck. Usually, this would be an open and shut case, the spouse is always the first suspect, but with Mark's philandering ways, the suspect list grows exponentially. So of course, Kate has to snoop and solve the case to free her friend of suspicion.

Maggie Sefton is known for her Knitting Series and I believe that this book is the first in a new series. Interesting start with what could be a good continuation of characters. Can't wait to see what develops between Kate and the home inspector / gun expert Chekov.

This was not as good as her knitting mysteries that feature Kelly in the same town. I didn't think the characters or plot was as interesting or fun. I would definitely recommend reading her other series and this one will also give an enjoyable afternoon read if you liked the others, but you just won't adore the characters as much. It was also much more expensive as it was printed in hardcover while her other series is all paperback. And if an author is going to set two series in the same town, we could at least periperially meet some of the other characters and/or sites. And the even the sam type of dog....

Maggie Sefton is a magical writer who combines humor and mystery to keep you interested and laughing from beginning to end. The suspects always keep you guessing who done it until the very end.

My first broker in the real estate business always warned her agents not to be too helpful in making and closing a sale. Just do your job, and do it well, she'd say. Let the other people do theirs. Well, Kate Doyle obviously didn't work for my broker, but her own broker warns her every which way from Sunday, to the point of threatening to fire her. Kate just can't keep her nose off the evidence trail after her client is murdered. The client's estranged wife Amanda, Kate's good friend, is the prime suspect, and Kate is determined to prove that Amanda didn't do it. She almost loses her own life in the effort. Dying to Sell is a well-crafted mystery with likeable characters and a believable plot - provided you can accept Kate's doggedness and disregard for her own safety. Well, what's a good cozy mystery without an amateur sleuth who operates with complete disregard for her own life? The inside look at the real estate business is well done, too, including Kate's realistic attitude towards a career that is many faceted and not always fun and games. All of this is set in beautiful Ft. Collins, Colorado, a lovely college town that is going through growing pains directly reflected in the new home building boom, which also plays a part in the plot. Realtors will especially enjoy this story in which a Realtor is the heroine, and anyone who has ever bought or sold a house will find much that rings familiar.

"For a first novel, this is a good book"...the only problem is, "Dying to Sell" is not a first novel, and Maggie Sefton has several mysteries to her credit in the well-known Knitting Series. My advice to readers is to read those novels, but avoid this one--it's definitely second rate. The plot is of the tabloid variety, with beautiful women jumping in bed with the handsome married guy, soon to be dead. Kate Doyle, the heroine, is a real estate broker/agent who is best friends with the dead guy's wife. Kate discovers corpses, pokes her nose into everyone's business, drinks a lot of coffee, and is generally as superficial a character as I've encountered in a mystery series. The background of real estate sales is sketchy, and seems to consist of talking on the phone and a couple of interactions with buyers who really are only mentioned as a part of the background. The ending is predictable--it's the jealous husband, of course. As I read this novel I thought of a first year creative writing student completing an assignment of "use an interesting background, a memorable location, some glamorous characters, and a lovable dog, and create a 250-page mass market mystery story." And based on the criteria of character development, plotting, and writing craftsmanship, I as the teacher would grade the assignment as a C-minus.