Customer Reviews

Faked To Death (Simon Kirby-Jones Mysteries)

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The villagers of Snupperton Mumsley are happy to welcome American Southern born and bred best-selling author Simon Kirby-Jones into their English midst. Simon is elated to be away from the States and the break up with his boyfriend especially now that he has as his assistant the gorgeous Sir Giles Blitherton, who is just waiting to jump his bones. The only thing holding him back from getting romantically involved with anyone is the fact that he is a vampire and is afraid to trust Giles with his secret.

As long as Simon takes his medication three times a day he can pass for human, which enables him to walk in the sunlight and be active in the daytime. He accepts an invitation from Lady Hermione Kinsale to appear at a writer's workshop but he's outraged to learn that mystery author Dorinda Darlington is also appearing. Simon knows she's a fake because he is Dorinda and he's absolutely livid that his agent who is also at the conference arranged this publicity stunt. When the fake Dorinda is murdered, Simon deduces that one of blackmailed authors killed her. He investigates because he's nosy.

The protagonist is a drama queen with a biting sense of humor. He is also a vampire who has few traditional powers (the side effect of the medication he uses) so he must solve the who-done-it by using his wits of which he has many. The mystery is well plotted and there are many suspects who could be the killer so the readers are able to like this delightful cozy with a supernatural twist. FAKED TO DEATH is a unique, refreshing and totally endearing satirical mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I've read both of the books, and am looking forward to the next one. I especially liked the introduction of his concern that he would be "outed" by not dying in an otherwise fatal accident.

I agree that the series cannot go on much longer with Giles' knowing the truth. Although he may not consciously speculate on some odd aspects of Simon's life, the clues must be racking up sub-consciously.

At this point, their relationship needs some sort of resolution; more of Giles throwing himself at an unwilling Simon will probably turn me off the series for good. It gets too emotionally masochistic/dysfunctional.

That leads to ... Simon's sex life. Or lack thereof. He may not need food, but his hormones seem to be raging along just fine to me. He's been celibate since arriving in the U.K.?

One last thing: do we really need to be reminded of his taking his pills? Those mentionings take me out of the story gratuitously - and annoyingly! I'd like to know what happens if he stops taking them? Perhaps he could misplace some? Or be burgled and have the thief steal them thinking they have a street value of some sort? Perhaps that would cause him to need to turn to someone? Enter Giles!

Simon can be insufferable, but he's never mean or cruel. He fits in well with all of the other abursurdist characters in his world.

Jumping directly into the second book in a series without having read the first can sometimes be a handicap. In FAKED TO DEATH, the second book in the Simon Kirby-Jones mystery series, the author Dean James quickly and efficiently deals with the salient plot points in the first three paragraphs.

"Being dead has its advantages.
"I get much more writing done now that I'm a vampire. When one has not one but two yearly best-sellers to produce, it's just as well that three hours' rest per night is sufficient.
"The world of popular fiction knows me as Daphne Deepwood (historical romance) and Dorinda Darlington (hard-boiled female private-eye novels). Little do my devoted readers suspect that Daphne-Dorinda is really Simon Kirby-Jones, respected historian, author of acclaimed biographies of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart. Nor do they suspect I'm a vampire. And gay."

James has written a throwback to the old English cozy mystery perfected by Agatha Christie, except he adds an original twist. Instead of Miss Marple, we get Simon Kirby-Jones, a gay vampire from the American South who now lives in a small town in England. It's an idea that could have made for an interestingly unique touch. Unfortunately, James didn't deviate much from the formula.

When Simon is invited to a Writers Conference as himself, he's very surprised to find that his alter ego Dorinda Darlington is scheduled to appear as well. The phony Dorinda quickly insults everyone at the conference - held of course, at a secluded English manor - so it's no surprise when she ends up dead. Predictably, the police ask everyone to stay at the manor overnight and, not surprisingly, someone else ends up dead.

Simon, who just like amateur sleuths the world over (alive or dead), can't seem to keep his nose out of police business, investigates and figures things out before the police do. I had the mystery figured out long before the big denouement, although for a while I thought James was not only going to follow formula to a tee, but was actually going to steal one of Christie's most famous plot-twists. Thankfully, he didn't go quite that far.

Despite the predictability of the book, I did enjoy James' writing style. Simon Kirby-Jones is a likeable protagonist, even if he does tend to be a bit insufferable at times. Still, I expected more from the premise than was actually delivered. A good beach read if all you want to do is escape with a bit of fluff.

FAKED TO DEATH is the second in the Simon Kirby-Jones mystery series by Dean James. Dr Kirby-Jones is a prolific author who writes historical biographies under his own name, and mysteries with a female sleuth under his pen name, Dorinda Darlington. Oh, by the way Simon Kirby-Jones is a gay vampire. Of course in this day and age vampires take pills three times a day that allow them a most life like existence. They can no longer turn into bats or put the glamour on people but the up side is they no longer sleep in coffins and they can go about in the day time. They do retain their intuitive gifts however.

In this second novel, Simon and his handsome trusty assistant Sir Giles, attend a writers' conference at the stately home of Lady Hermione Kinsale. Simon has a strong motive for attending. Someone, posing as Dorinda Darlington, will also be there, and Simon is determined to find out what the imposter is up to. A colorful cast of eccentric authors populate the writers' workshop and the reader is informed that each has reason to detest the fake Dorinda. Needless to say, it is not long before the imposter is dead and the mystery is in full swing.

This novel is a delightful English Cozy, full of off beat, fun characters, and set in the British countryside. James constructs an admirable who-done-it, with the prerequisite red herrings, and the reader is kept guessing as to the murderer's identity. The humor here is firmly tongue-in-cheek. This is a pleasant and distracting read from cover to cover and a definite credit to its genre. I look forward to the next installment.

Dean James has done it again with his ingenious creation--a mystery solving vampire in a small English village. The setting is a writer's weekend at Kinsale House, where several mystery writers meet their fates. The repartee between Simon Kirby-Jones and the other characters (especially the agent) is laugh-out-loud fun. James is both clever and kind in his rendition of writerly egos and the pitfalls of fame. "Posted to Death" (first in the series) was great fun, but this is a Coney Island ride. I couldn't put the book down.

The second installment in author Dean James' charming series of vampire cozies finds undead amateur sleuth Simon Kirby-Jones at a writers' conference hosted by local aristocrat Lady Hermione Kinsale. Simon's host and the clutch of other writers at the conference know him as the author of two highly respected biographies, but Simon also publishes novels pseudonymously, including a bestselling series of mysteries under the name Dorinda Darlington. The fun starts when a woman claiming to be Dorinda shows up at the conference and sets about infuriating her "colleagues." A corpse or two later, Simon is back to putting his vampiric attributes--acute hearing, the ability to sense when people are lying--to good use, helping the local constabulary solve a double murder.

The toothsome Watson to Simon's toothy Sherlock is Sir Giles Blitherington, the young lord Simon hired as an assistant in the first Kirby-Jones mystery, shortly after he moved to the quaint village of Snupperton Mumsley. In Faked to Death Simon is still warding off Giles' incessant but not wholly unwelcome advances. He is also still remembering to take twice daily the pills that, in this modern age, allow vampires to live like mortals, gadding about in the sunlight and eschewing the drinking of blood.

Perhaps perversely, I'm hoping Simon will forget his medication one day: I'd like to see how the polite society of Snupperton Mumsley would react should Simon start showing his fangs. I'm also hoping Dean Jones will continue chronicling Simon's exploits for a long time to come.

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

I have to tell you that I received Faked to Death in the post late in the afternoon on a Thursday; by Friday morning I was reading the final words - and I loved every minute of it. Posted to Death was a great surprise and a thoroughly enjoyable read, and its sequel was even more enjoyable. I really want Simon Kirby-Jones to have that conversation with Giles. I won't divulge the details or the plot - just read it and enjoy!!

This series is so easy to sit back and enjoy. The main sleuth happens to be gay and a vampire, but, that is really somewhat immaterial in this well-written murder mystery.

A house party or writer's convention is held at Lady Kinsale's manor. True to the British style of cozy, the party is all but cozy. Seething emotions and oddness prevails as our Simon and his Assistant, Sir Giles, join in as new speakers. To Simon's dismay, he finds a charlatan pretending to be one of his alias.

This book is written with humor and satire of the classic British mystery that many of us appreciate. The ending is a twist that you do not expect.

Great read.

Thank-you Dean James for another wonderful Simon Kirby-Jones mystery. The continuity of the stories, the development of the characters, and the creativity of new situations keep me coming back for another in this series.

I enjoyed the way Simon needed to increase his pills to keep his vampirism under control. A bit of a change and kept me wondering how is his condition going to affect his future dealings with people.

I enjoy the murder of victims we'd love to see "out of the way" so to speak. Keeping in tune to a real cozy. Thank-you again for that Dean James.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys British cozies or a vampire cozy. I never could enjoy any vampire mysteries until Simon Kirby-Jones.

May there be many, many more in this series.

As far as mysteries are concerned I expect genre loving readers will still find this second episode at fault. The very classical rules of very classical detective stories require that the readers be given all necessary inditia to solve it for themselves.

It does not happen here and the identity of the murderer is entirely unexpected.

As for the rest I was happier than with the first book: this series is apparently not meant to be more than just entertaining and entertaining it is.

The writing is quick, light hearted; there are repetitions and redundant statements but fewer than in the first episode not to mention that Simon is much more likeable here than it was there.

An easy read for a lazy afternoon: this book is nothing more but also nothing less than this.