Customer Reviews

Manor of Death (Domestic Bliss Mysteries)

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

 

 

In Crestview, Colorado homeowners are getting their houses in shape in preparation for the upcoming Historic Home Tour. Interior Designer Erin Gilbert is contracted to renovate Francine Findley's Victorian mansion even though she won't let Erin take down the wall that sealed off the only staircase to the roof. It was closed off decades ago after a teenager jumped from that same roof. Erin doesn't give credence to the rumors that the mansion is haunted but when she sees a young woman on Francine's roof, she believe the person is the very much alive Willow McAndrews, who lives on the other side of Francine's abode with Diana Durst.

When Willow falls off the same roof as the dead Abby did over four decades ago Erin is a witness and sees Lisa, Francine's daughter on the roof. Lisa declares she got there after Willow fell but Erin believes Lisa isn't telling everything she knows. Helped by her business rival Steve Sullivan, they search for clues that will lead to Willow's killer. When a second person dies, one who is linked to Willow, both Erin and Steve think the murders are somehow linked to Abby's death. Now all they have to do is find the evidence to prove it without getting killed.

Leslie Caine has written a charming amateur sleuth tale that is filled with humor, intrigue, and a complicated who done it. This murder is up close and personal for Erin because the evidence points to several different neighbors as possible suspects and she suspects that when the killer is found she is going to be upset because it will be someone she trusted implicitly. Erin feels for Steve a more powerful emotion than annoyance, one that could change her life it she has the courage to look into her heart. Perhaps she will in future books.

Harriet Klausner

I really enjoyed this book and intend to read more in the series because it was so entertaining. But the writing level wasn't good enough for me to give it five stars -- some of the sentences seemed really awkward or unnatural.

That having been said, this was great fun and created a world that you would like to live in -- in other words, very cozy! The detective/heroine is Erin Gilbert, an interior designer who is just starting out and living in Crestview, Colorado, in the house of Audrey, who would be a client if she could talk Audrey into letting her do something to the house. Erin has a job redecorating the octogonal roof room on an older house in this stylish neighborhood -- a house just around the block. The story starts out with Erin looking out the window and seeing a woman in a nightgown on the roof of the house -- which everyone tells her is the ghost of Abby, a young woman who died in a fall from the roof many years ago. Erin is skeptical and thinks maybe someone is playing a joke. So the story moves back and forth between telling the story of Erin and her landlady and rival but goodlooking and sexy designer (Steve Sullivan -- Gilbert and Sullivan, get it?). Erin has trouble with the neighbors and her client about the design, and the client's 12 year old daughter is suspected of creating Abby sightings. Neighbor Cassandra is convinced that this is a ghost and holds a seance... Well, you get the gist of the story. Lots of characters and a fairly involved story.

If you like cozy mysteries I think you'll enjoy the book, although I suspect this is more to women's taste than men's.

However the writing style is rather amateurish. Far too frequently the furniture styles were described as sexy. Far too many descriptions were given of the hair of the characters. If the author can tighten up her prose the series could be promising.

Leslie Caine's characters, plot and writing style get worse and worse. The plot is tried and the character unrealistic.