Customer Reviews

Honeymoon with Murder (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 4)

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I normally love the Death on Demand series. But I didn't really like this book. I wanted to like it. But it didn't hold my interest. I have to admit I skimmed parts and read the end.

This is the fourth book in Carolyn Hart's "Death on Demand" series. As with the other books in the series, it's full of references to fictional sluethes (all pre-1988 but still fun for mystery fans). Annie and Max finally get married. Before they can honeymoon, Annie's assistant Ingrid is abducted and a dead man is found in her house. The resulting search is so far fetched as to be a farce in many ways.

This isn't one of Hart's best books. My primary peeve is that she forshadows the murderer early and often. Also, for a book with the word "Honeymoon" in the title, there's very little romance. I'm also getting really tired of the character of Posey. Annie deserves a more worthy adversary.

Loved this book - love ALL the Death on Demand books, but this one more than most. Try it; you'll see what I'm talking about.

I have gotten hooked on these "cozy mysteries". You get to really know the characters and feel a part of their life. I would suggest reading the Death on Demand Mysteries in order so that you get to know who the characters are. These are quick, fun, easy reading.

HONEYMOON WITH MURDER by Carolyn Hart, has a bit too much of everything to get Annie and Max on track for their honeymoon.

Death on Demand is a great series, but don't read this one first. These are best read in order so one let down will not send you away forever. One of my favorite things about the series is the bibliographic information. I've found dozens of great mysteries I knew nothing about and try to mark and identify each reference to another author's work.

Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

Qualifying LapsSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County Novel

Through each new offering in this series, Carolyn Hart's word-smithing skills have been reducing down into an increasingly potent balsamic brew, and this one has arrived at sheer literary sensation polished to a sheen of luxury literature. HONEYMOON WITH MURDER, # 4 in Hart's DEATH ON DEMAND series, opened on a chilling mood driving a fast pace, as befits the classic murder mystery genre. After a thorough reader capture had been achieved, the pace slowed and the style warmed into Annie and Max's wedding, precisely when I was ready for that contrast.

Due to Circuit Solicitor Posey's bungling, posturing incompetence over-simplifying a complex murder scene, a citizen command camp was established, adding a high-aroma spice of farcical fun to the plot, with a huge, carnival-like collection of locals volunteering to join in finding Ingrid, Annie's employee at Death on Demand (her Broward's Rock bookstore). Where was Ingrid and why had she disappeared? That situation was tied to a murder, of course, which had occurred in Ingrid's cabin in Nightingale Courts.

Within this menagerie of activity, the relationship between Annie and Max continued to spark with feisty warmth and subtle hot spots, and some of the characters with potential to go sour were surged in heroic appeal, including Laurel and Henny. To me it's particularly endearing that Hart gradually redeems characters with which Annie clashes (grandly expressing heated irritation).

A few dark characters (Jesse Penrick and Duane Webb among them), some of whom were redeemed, others of whom were developed through-and-through with yummy bitters, enhanced the complexity of isolating the killer, with all points arranged within elaborate convolutions.

The denouement disclosure scene featured Annie in her glory as it rolled out with stunningly riveting intensity. I read through the scene nonstop, comprehending and remembering all the salient details due to the sequential logic and mesmerizing clarity of Annie's presentation of the resolutions. This surprised me somewhat because often in past reads I've taken the closing details in a classic mystery in a few small doses, as I'm horrible with memory of facts and timetables. Sometimes I notice, to my chagrin, that I've read the "who done it" explanation and promptly forgotten who it was and why, as I read rapidly through the information. I rarely make much effort to stoke up my cerebrum to guess ahead of time who did what to whom. So why do I read mysteries? Do I have a clue?

Returning to note the appeals of HONEYMOON (appeals I remember), the campsite setting warmed me into the story, along with the entertainment factor in the requisite division of "Men's" and "Women's" intimate needs areas, with the separated territories taking hold of Annie and Max and providing the perfect ironic foil to the "after the wedding" expectations of the couple and the reader. With those divisions remaining stable throughout the plot, the simplicity of the few paragraphs of the final scene in which the honeymoon was set to "begin" perfected an exquisite elegance of understatement.

I'll conclude by giving my opinion that Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffry series is not, as has often been claimed, Agatha Christie's modern day, USA, namesake counterpart to Miss. Marple. Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series is. Though this is meant as a compliment to Mrs. Hart, it is not meant as an insult to Churchill.

Churchill's Jane Jeffry series has something I crave, which I hadn't found in a classic mystery series, not even in the best of the best. I haven't quite pinpointed that something I seek, but it has something to do with the saying, "One man's (reader's) trash is another man's treasure."

That taste concept is on the tip of my tongue. Maybe I'll be able to isolate it in my review of Churchill's latest Jane & Shelley novel, THE ACCIDENTAL FLORIST (which I'm reading now, saying "yum" to the tidbits of author's life details). That # 16 in series came out of the chute with a few customer reviews expressing disappointment in the low profile of the mystery angle. What those readers seemed to feel was lacking in this book, its not having what classic mystery fans demand, gave me a clue to understanding what I craved each time I renewed myself through Jane and Shelley's shenanigans, shopping sagas, and easy shamelessness in being who they were.

Prior to finishing this latest offering from Churchill, I believe it will become one of my favorite novels in this "genre." In a sense, Carolyn Hart continues to perfect the classic cases and causes of the core of the cozy mystery genre, while Jill Churchill, probably by necessity of her unique brand of creativity, has evolved her talent in the direction of Jane Jeffry's character needs, and mine as a reader.

In my view, Hart and Churchill are each evolving their skills perfectly, in directions accorded by their creative souls; each will appeal to different reader needs. Bless them all. Bless each author's unique path. As readers we win, if we pick our mysteries with the tips of our tongues. Peace.

Please don't tell the bookstore owner why you're licking that book jacket!

When you buy from Amazon you're saved that compulsive embarrassment; savor the flavor in the privacy of your own home, after pulling the book out of its Amazon box.

With Thanks for Genre Sideslips, Freudian or otherwise,

Linda Shelnutt

Through each new offering in this series, Carolyn Hart's word-smithing skills have been reducing down into an increasingly potent balsamic brew, and this one has arrived at sheer literary sensation polished to a sheen of luxury literature. HONEYMOON WITH MURDER, # 4 in Hart's DEATH ON DEMAND series, opened on a chilling mood driving a fast pace, as befits the classic murder mystery genre. After a thorough reader capture had been achieved, the pace slowed and the style warmed into Annie and Max's wedding, precisely when I was ready for that contrast.

Due to Circuit Solicitor Posey's bungling, posturing incompetence over-simplifying a complex murder scene, a citizen command camp was established, adding a high-aroma spice of farcical fun to the plot, with a huge, carnival-like collection of locals volunteering to join in finding Ingrid, Annie's employee at Death on Demand (her Broward's Rock bookstore). Where was Ingrid and why had she disappeared? That situation was tied to a murder, of course, which had occurred in Ingrid's cabin in Nightingale Courts.

Within this menagerie of activity, the relationship between Annie and Max continued to spark with feisty warmth and subtle hot spots, and some of the characters with potential to go sour were surged in heroic appeal, including Laurel and Henny. To me it's particularly endearing that Hart gradually redeems characters with which Annie clashes (grandly expressing heated irritation).

A few dark characters (Jesse Penrick and Duane Webb among them), some of whom were redeemed, others of whom were developed through-and-through with yummy bitters, enhanced the complexity of isolating the killer, with all points arranged within elaborate convolutions.

The denouement disclosure scene featured Annie in her glory as it rolled out with stunningly riveting intensity. I read through the scene nonstop, comprehending and remembering all the salient details due to the sequential logic and mesmerizing clarity of Annie's presentation of the resolutions. This surprised me somewhat, because often in past reads, I've taken the closing details in a classic mystery in a few small doses, as I'm horrible with memory of facts and timetables. Sometimes I notice, to my chagrin, that I've read the "who done it" explanation and promptly forgotten who it was and why, as I read rapidly through the information. I rarely make much effort to stoke up my cerebrum to guess ahead of time who did what to whom. So why do I read mysteries? Do I have a clue?

Returning to note the appeals of HONEYMOON (appeals I remember), the campsite setting warmed me into the story, along with the entertainment factor in the requisite division of "Men's" and "Women's" intimate needs areas, with the separated territories taking hold of Annie and Max and providing the perfect ironic foil to the "after the wedding" expectations of the couple and the reader. With those divisions remaining stable throughout the plot, the simplicity of the few paragraphs of the final scene in which the honeymoon was set to "begin" perfected an exquisite elegance of understatement.

I'll conclude by giving my opinion that Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffry series is not, as has often been claimed, Agatha Christie's modern day, USA, namesake counterpart to Miss. Marple. Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series is. Though this is meant as a compliment to Mrs. Hart, it is not meant as an insult to Churchill.

Churchill's Jane Jeffry series has something I crave, which I hadn't found in a classic mystery series, not even in the best of the best. I haven't quite pinpointed that something I seek, but it has something to do with the saying, "One man's (reader's) trash is another man's treasure."

That taste concept is on the tip of my tongue. Maybe I'll be able to isolate it in my review of Churchill's latest Jane & Shelley novel, THE ACCIDENTAL FLORIST (which I'm reading now, saying "yum" to the tidbits of author's life details). That # 16 in series came out of the chute with a few customer reviews expressing disappointment in the low profile of the mystery angle. What those readers seemed to feel was lacking in this book, its not having what classic mystery fans demand, gave me a clue to understanding what I craved each time I renewed myself through Jane and Shelley's shenanigans, shopping sagas, and easy shamelessness in being who they were.

Prior to finishing this latest offering from Churchill, I believe it will become one of my favorite novels in this "genre." In a sense, Carolyn Hart continues to perfect the classic cases and causes of the core of the cozy mystery genre, while Jill Churchill, probably by necessity of her unique brand of creativity, has evolved her talent in the direction of Jane Jeffry's character needs, and mine as a reader.

In my view, Hart and Churchill are each evolving their skills perfectly, in directions accorded by their creative souls; each will appeal to different reader needs. Bless them all. Bless each author's unique path. As readers we win, if we pick our mysteries with the tips of our tongues. Peace.

Please don't tell the bookstore owner why you're licking that book jacket!

When you buy from Amazon you're saved that compulsive embarrassment; savor the flavor in the privacy of your own home, after pulling the book out of its Amazon box.

With Thanks for Genre Sideslips, Freudian or otherwise,

Linda Shelnutt