Customer Reviews

A Crazy Little Thing Called Death (Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, No. 6)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I enjoy the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries. I probably would have given this book a 5 star if Nora and Mick's issue where better resolved at the end of the book. I like the interaction between all the characters and would have enjoyed more a lot more to the book. I finished this book in two sittings. It's pretty good in story dynamics I just wanted a little more at the end hence the 4 star. All in All fast fluffy read worth reading more in the future by Martin.

A Crazy Little Thing Called Death by Nancy Martin is the sixth novel in the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries. The Blackbird family is an old one, and fairly high up in Philadelphia High Society. But the family has been cursed since colonial times - each of the family's daughters will love bad boys and become young widows. The three daughters of this generation of the Blackbird family have all fallen under the curse - they are all attracted to bad boys, and are all young and beautiful widows. They are also impoverished, as their parents spent off the family fortune and fled overseas, leaving he girls with multimillion dollar tax bills and nothing to pay them with. The sensible and sensitive red headed sister, Nora has agreed to marry her Mafia prince. Eldest sister, the blonde earth mother Libby, wants to plan the wedding of Nora's dreams, but is only being a pain. And dark haired sister, the horse crazy and athletic Emma, has started taking strange phone calls from men at all hours, leading her sisters to wonder if she has turned to the world's oldest profession to make ends meet. In the midst of all of this family madness, a movie star from a famous Philly society family vanishes and is declared dead. She leaves Nora a very interesting bequest. And her family makes the Blackbirds look normal. Did they kill her? Where might she possibly be - either dead OR alive?

I really enjoy this series, and have read them all, starting with How to Murder a Millionaire and going right on through Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too: A Blackbird Sisters Mystery (Blackbird Sisters Mysteries) and I really wish that I could rate this one higher.

I have a couple of issues with it:
Nora and Mick need to either commit or break up ~ I would be content with either one, but the off and on nature of their relationship is getting really old this many books into a series

I would like to see both Libby and Emma be more fully developed as characters, particularly Emma, who seems to be intriguing

I'm a big fan of the Blackbird sisters mysteries and was looking forward to the release of this book; however, I did not enjoy it as much as the others. The characters have already been well established. The story was okay but I'm getting bored with the Nora and Nick relationship. It's not really going anywhere. They break up, they get back together. Nothing ever changes and, to me, the relationship is starting to lose it's passion.

The sixth installment in the Blackbird Sisters Mystery series is another fun ride. With just the right amounts of murder, mayhem, sexual tension, romance, humor and clothes to die for, Ms. Martin continues to entertain and wow readers. Her descriptions are second to none. Her fresh writing will not disappoint.

Nora grows stronger and is closer to finding her full potenital. Michael is still yummy. Libby and her crew is still wacky and wonderful. Emma is even more mysterious and continues to keep a step ahead of her sisters.

Ms. Martin weaves another web of believable murderous fun full of intricate family relationships we all can relate to. She continues to give us a peek into the lives of the upper crust society crowd.

"A Crazy Little Thing Called Death" is fun, fabulous and leaves us wanting more!

I enjoyed this one almost as much as the others. The mystery part is excellent. The love angle is getting tiring. I hope she moves on from that one way or the other soon.

I have read all the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries and, for the most part, enjoyed each one--the characters, the dialogue, the intricate plotting. I've enjoyed them even though I have had to suspend disbelief on so many different levels in order to accept the story twists.

Unfortunately, with "A Crazy Little Thing Called Death", Nancy Martin is expecting us to accept one totally incredible action after another and I just couldn't do it.

Sure, Libby is still a man crazy woman who has too many biological children (thank heavens she wasn't pregnant in this book) and seems to never really raise any of them. Then there's Em who is as mysterious as Libby is prolific and who always walks the line bordering the dark side. Then there's Nora who HAD to have been adopted since she is level headed (except for the investigating mysteries and righting injustices part), hard working, and overall "good". Add in Nora's boyfriend, Mick, the son of a gangster who may or may not be a gangster himself and you've pushed believability about as far as it can go.

But in this book, we add the Devine family (who we have met before) who has one excentric (read: nutcake) member after another including a crazy cat lady, "male enhancement" products, wedding planning gotten out of hand and really ridiculous murder plotting (that I won't spoil in case you do read it) and all you can say is, "Damn, woman, give me a break."

Finally, Nora and Mick have had an on-again-off-again relationship which has worn thin. By the end of this book and the ambiguous finale, I didn't care and was hoping they would break up just to get it over with.

However, that leaves me with my own ambiguity--do I read book 7 or not? And, ambiguously, I haven't decided yet.

i have read every one of the blackbird sisters mysteries and once i start i cannot put them down. they just get better and better. love those sisters. libby and her kids, emma and all her conquests and then there is nora and her so called "bad boy" michael. loved him from the start. nancy martin sure knows how to hold your interest. it's like you are right there in the story. looking forward to all the books to come.

Quick read. New set of characters for me. Looks like I started a little late in the series. Quirky Southern charm.

While this was a good story, I found Nora to be really annoying in this installment of the series. It's time to end the relationship between her and Mick and move on. Their relationship is no longer fun to read about.

Also, with such strong characters as Nora, Emma and Lexie, I don't know why the author continues to force the idiotic Libby down our throats. The character is not quirky -- she's a pain in the neck and I found myself skipping over pages of her idiocy. Find her a man, pack her up and move her out of town. There are plenty of better characters to spend pages on.

I loved this book! This book is intelligent and humorous. She knows her stuff when it comes to style, too. The characters have great personalities.