Customer Reviews

The Fortieth Birthday Body: A Suburban Mystery

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

 

 

Dawn, the "town tramp" of Hancock, manages to ruin Susan Henshaw's 40th birthday bash by showing up uninvited behind the wheel of Susan's new Volvo. No one gets to confront her about her obnoxious behavior, though, because she's deader than a doornail. Anyone in this wealthy enclave could have done the deed--Dawn had seduced husbands and alienated wives every time she was in town from one of her archaeological digs. Unfortunately for Susan, her husband had not been immune to Dawn's charms, and now he's a suspect in the murder, too. Susan copes with the investigation, a March blizzard, and the feeling that she's no longer sexy and her husband doesn't really understand her in this book that keeps you guessing till the end. The reason I didn't give this a higher rating is that there are too many things left unsaid and unresolved that have nothing to do with the mystery. Maybe future books in the series will bring them to closure (this is the second). Just let me say that if all wealthy suburbanite marriages are as shallow and sick as some that are portrayed in this book, then I'm moving to the country, pronto

Second book in the Susan Henshaw series.

Susan is days away from her 40th birthday when she find out that Dawn Elliot, the neighborhood tramp, is moving back to town and all of Susan's insecurities resurface when she once again must be reminded of her husband affair with the woman. But Susan has other things on her mind as well, including the "surprise party" that he husband is planning - but that whole thing doesn't work out so well when Dawn's dead body is found behind the steering wheel of the brand new car that Jed bought Susan for the big 4-0.

With the help of her friend Kathleen, an ex-detective, the two set out to solve the mystery of Dawn and the men she was involved with, including a strange husband, but this book quickly dissolves into naughty neighborhood goings on and storylines that could only be described as soap-operaeque. I don't know why I continued on with the series, other than its throw back to kinder gentler days of Dallas and Knot's Landing.

Susan Henshaw's fortieth birthday rapidly approaches and Jed plans a "surprise" party for her with a new car as a gift. Unfortunately the local tramp is found dead in the front seat. Everyone who had an affair with her in the town of Hancock is a suspect including Jed. Susan and Kathleen have to do their best to clear him.

Ms. Wolzien has alot to live up to in her novels and this is not up to her usual standards. Her attempted red herrings just turn out to be loose ends. Susan and Jed never once discuss the affair--why--it almost gets him arrested and everyone else in town has told the police and Kathleen about it. This novel seems just sort of tossed together. It is however enjoyable for all that and I am slowly working my way through all her novels.

I was in my mid-30s when I read this one the first time. I thought then that maybe since I hadn't turned 40 myself, that I didn't understand why Susan was crying in the tub or flinching every time someone said something about Volvos being more her style than a sports car. But now that I'm over 40 myself, I really think that she was reacting more to the reappearance of a former rival for her husband's affections than the idea of no longer being 30-something. I do think that Valerie Wolzien did a great job of spreading the guilt and suspicion around. . .but to be honest, the murderer's identity seemed to have come out of left field. I had a hard time seeing where she planted the clues when I read this the second time. It also bothered me that, this being a series, and knowing we'll see these people again, she left so much unsaid and unresolved between Susan and Jed. In the end, when she goes and buys the car that SHE wants rather than the one "he" picked out for her, is that supposed to be the payback for his having hurt her by stepping out with the town tramp? In some ways, not knowing how they dealt with this kind of taints him for me in the subsequent books. When he's all loving and can't do enough for her in some of the later installments, I'm thinking, "You snake. Are you behaving badly again?" So. . .all in all, I just try to pretend this book was never written and enjoy the other ones for the pure fantastic pleasure they are. Don't bother looking for this one if it goes out of print.

I enjoyed every bit of this book and had a hard time putting it down. I can't wait to get out and pick up the rest of the books in this series.

Susan Henshaw is back with her friend Kathleen, who was a police investigator in the first book of the series and is now a friend and neighbor, married to a widower named Jerry. Kathleen lets it slip that Susan's husband Jed is preparing for a surprise party for Susan's 40th. birthday. Susan is already depressed by her approaching middle age and the fact that a woman named Dawn, who has had affairs with most of the men in the neighborhood, is back in town. The party becomes really depressing when a dead body shows up and Susan and Jed become murder suspects. There are no end of other people with motives, but the final conclusion is a weak one and the motive is pretty questionable. There are some nice touches, such as Susan's son Chad becoming a hero because of his knowledge of cars, but basically the book falls a bit flat at the end.

The second in a series, I found this book, and its predecessor, to be extremely disappointing.

I'm not sure why these books are called the "Susan Henshaw mysteries", when her friend Kathleen is the main character. I also don't understand how Kathleen went from being a state police officer who detested the wealthy suburban lifestyle in the first book to "one of the gang" in the second book -- the details behind this major character shift were revealed in no more than three obscure sentences.

And that's the problem with this series. Crucial plot events happen "off-screen", and we find out about them whenever the plot happens to demand that we should know them. Character viewpoint changes randomly with no rhyme or reason, from chapter to chapter, chapter section to chapter section, or paragraph to paragraph. Minor characters are never identified by name, but rather as "the woman on the other end of the phone said...". Semi-major characters are also referred to in the same way until it suits the author's purpose to have us know who's speaking or phoning or arriving. The characters also spend a great deal of time in dialogue about details that are obviously known to them, and whose sole purpose is to obviously provide us with information the author was unable to find any other way to provide.

The reason I like series mysteries is the opportunity to gain a familiarity with a core group of characters. Aside from her immediate family and Kathleen, only the next door neighbors can be found in both books as minor characters. As the first book of the series stressed the closeness of the community and the "group" that Susan belongs to, I found it hard to buy that her husband would throw her a surprise birthday party, and aside from the next door neighbors, not a single character from this close group was present. More of my time was spent trying to learn all these new characters (of which there were many) than in being able to concentrate on the plot.

Usually a great fan of amateur female sleuth series, this is the first series I've found that I won't complete. A totally disappointing experience.