Customer Reviews

False Premises (Domestic Bliss Mysteries)

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

 

 

The second installment of this series is better than the first, with the main characters being fleshed out much more, and a good, solid mystery.

The dialogue between characters is a bit childish and amateur (particularly when one character has a long passage of dialogue), but it's not anything that really takes away from the story. Don't miss this one!

Interior designer Erin Gilbert helps her clients Laura Smith and David Holland redecorate their mini-mansion with beautiful and costly antiques, and becomes friends with the woman. After an alteration with a man wearing a wig and carrying a gun, Laura flips him using a judo technique. When Erin goes to her home to check on her, she discovers that the valuable antiquities were replaced with cheap reproductions.

Laura tells the interior decoration that the antiquities are in storage where they will be safe and appreciate in value over the years. When Erin informs David, he insists he knows nothing about the switch because he was out of town but he can't see properly because he lost his glasses. Erin learns that Laura is the person who scammed interior decorator Steve Sullivan out of $300,000 dollars. Steve and Erin watch Laura's house. When Dave drives out they follow him to a storage facility where they find Laura's murdered body. Erin starts her own investigation discovering that everyone who knew Laura had a reason to kill her.

It is hard to believe that every person she was involved in ended up helping her and then wanting to see her dead but Laura was one such person, the perfect villainess and victim. There are so many people she hurt who had a motive to kill her that readers will find themselves trying to figure out who the killer really is. The heroine pursues her investigation even though there have been attempts made on her life but she is determined to identify the perpetrator so she can regain her own piece of mind. This exciting amateur sleuth tale is the perfect beach book.

Harriet Klausner

This is the first book I've read by Leslie Caine so I can't compare the writing in it to her other works. False Premises had a good mystery, but the writing marred the plot. The heroine, Erin Gilbert, seemed immature for being in her mid-twenties and the chapters were peppered with equally annoying, rather than interesting characters.

Erin Gilbert is an interior designer and her client Laura Smith has purchased many expensive antiques Erin had found for her. After a confrontation the two women have with a man proclaiming to be a policeman, Erin follows Laura home, concerned for her safety. Inside her house for the first time, she finds the priceless antiques she has scoured the antique world for have been replaced with cheap fakes. Erin confronts her about the situation and Laura states the antiques are in a storage facility as she is contemplating selling them. Erin doesn't believe Laura and shares the information with her boyfriend who informs her Laura is the woman that scammed his friend Steve Sullivan and ran off with his business partner Evan. John, Erin's boyfriend feels they need to tell Steve and they decide to monitor Laura's movements. Laura, of course, gets murdered.

The rest of the book works towards solving the murder. I felt the confused at times by the clutter of people that appeared who didn't seem to push the plot/story forward. I did find the insertion of design blurbs to be interesting, sometimes more interesting than the accompanying plot! However, the mystery itself was interesting and I found the book worth finishing to find out "who did it."

I am a huge Leslie Caine fan, but this book left me baffled. There was simply too much happening, without enough context. Too many suspects, too many arguments, too many leads. And none of the characters was developed enough to make me connect with them or the story.

I also find the insertion of random chapters of interior design advice to be an annoying interruption. They do nothing to further the story or the character development. They belong in an end-of-chapter summation, or an appendix -- not thrown randomly into the book. And the way they're done in a different typeface and design - horrid! I actually thought there'd been a mistake. The font is difficult to read and the design is ugly.

Overall, not one of her best books, or even her best series. I love the lightheartedness that went with some of her earlier series, which is entirely missing in this series. There's nothing light about it -- just depressing.

This book and writer couldn't be any more boring if they tried. Her style is dry and old and it seems like she only writes to formula. Ugh. There are much better writers out there, so I hope people won't waste their time with this or any of her other books, including the ones she's written under Leslie O'Kane. She should have changed her style not her name!