Honeymoon with Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 4) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Carolyn G. Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2003

A New York Times Bestselling Author
An Anthony Award-winning Author

Mystery bookstore owner Annie Laurance and detective Max Darling finally tie the knot, but a bizarre sequence of events might unravel this blissful marriage before it begins. Just as Max sweeps Annie into his arms, the phone rings. . . and a woman on the other end screams bloody murder!

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The murder of sleazy/disreputable Jesse Penrick interrupts Annie and Max Darling's honeymoon when Annie's friend, desperate for assistance, phones her. The friend's subsequent disappearance galvanizes the island of Broward's Rock (off the Carolinas), precipitates the involvement of a gaggle of sleuths, and provides for the author's frequent allusions to various mysteries (Annie runs the Death on Demand mystery bookstore). The literary references fall a bit thick, as do appendant crimes, batty characters, cliches, and extended "important" messages. True mystery devotees should love this. REK
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"True mystery devotees should love this."
-- Library Journal (Library Journal )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 398 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (December 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786261668
• ISBN-13: 978-0786261666
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,073,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Hart talks about mysteries and writing in a new interview on Oklahoma public tv. Please visit www.CarolynHart.com and click on the link in the upper right hand column.

In April Berkley Prime Crime will publish DEATH COMES SILENTLY, the 22nd Death on Demand title. Coming in October is WHAT THE CAT SAW, a novel of suspense.

Carolyn 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.

Carolyn 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 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just sufficiently more fun than it is irritating, April 12, 1999

By 

"garfish" (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon with Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 4) (Paperback)

This is a nice fluffy cozy, deeply annoying in spots, but on the whole I must enjoy this series because I find I keep buying it. Annie Laurence owns "Death on Demand" bookshop, which is what every single one of Carolyn Hart's readers would do for a living if given the chance. There is one cat but she doesn't figure centrally. There's lots of good coffee. There's Annie's handsome, rich and adoring husband Max. There's an investigating officer so preposterously stupid it's astonishing he can walk around without an assistant reminding him to breathe every twenty seconds. There are about three references to the protagonist's (and, I suspect, author's) favourite mystery novels and writers per page. Although this is annoying, when the action gets slow you can amuse yourelf by counting them. Yet all said and done, this is a fun piece of candy-floss to while away a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Just don't go looking for any eternal verities. Or even temporary ones.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unlikely premise, June 4, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Honeymoon with Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 4) (Paperback)

At long last Annie Laurance and Max Darling are married, in a ceremony which is a compromise between Max's mother Laurel's "far-out" ideas and Annie's desire for a simple, dignified ceremony. That all rings true, but what happens next does not. A murder is committed and a likely suspect disappears and suddenly the inhabitants of the island are enticed into a city of tents, divided up into men's and women's quarters from which they are to launch a search for a missing woman. It is difficult to imagine that such a thing would happen (why can't they search during the day and stay in their own homes at night?) and even more difficult to believe that a newly-married couple would fall for such a scheme. Max's mother Laurel provides some comic relief in the book, but her occult-loving friend Ophelia is a just a bit over the top. Let's come back down to earth, Mrs. Hart, and return to the formula which made you successful, the Agatha Christie-like mystery solved by the deductive reasoning of the heroine. Annie's solution to the case comes as almost a minor event compared to the other things which are going on in the book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not my favourite book in this series either, September 18, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Honeymoon with Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 4) (Paperback)

I found this book to be rambling and disjointed. There did not seem to be a continuing thread, and the characters were all over the place. Also I was hoping not to have to read about the Circuit Judge Posey again, since I did not like him in the last book. I am becoming a bit disillusioned with this series, so I'll try a couple more, and if the books don't get better I'll go onto something else.