May the Best Man Die (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 3) [Mass Market Paperback]

Deborah Donnelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2003

A KILLER BACHELOR PARTY

Carnegie Kincaid plans weddings, not stag parties. When a client asks Carnegie to manage a pre-wedding blow-out—complete with a stripper—she tactfully refuses the job. So why is Carnegie peering through binoculars across the Seattle Ship Canal, watching a shapely Santa Claus turn naked inside a hip dockside bistro? Because her own significant other—with whom she is having some significant differences—is at the party too. And, so it turns out, is a killer. When the body of the groom’s best man is pulled from the canal the next day, critical questions arise. What did Carnegie really see through her binoculars? More important: What will she tell the police she saw? As a wedding planner, Carnegie has her connections to maintain, and before she points Seattle’s finest to some possibly innocent suspects, she’ll look into the crime herself. But while Carnegie is snooping around, word of a witness has gotten out—and now
a killer is watching her...

May the Best Man Die

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bubbly blend of farcical humor and madcap mystery, Donnelly's newest (after Died to Match) finds Seattle wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid in the midst of chaos once again. After being exiled from her dry-rotted houseboat, Carnegie's life plummets from bad to worse when her business partner mysteriously departs, her best friend stops speaking to her and her boyfriend tells her he's married. Her professional life peaks and dives as well, one of the low points being when a flamboyant Frenchman humiliates her on live TV while luring her customers away. Then, to make matters worse, the best man in her latest wedding turns up dead, transforming a cushy assignment to plan a celebrity wedding into a race to catch a killer before he/she picks off the rest of the bridal party. Many of the characters that have made Donnelly's Wedding Planner series so endearing are absent here-no Boris the Mad Russian Florist or Juice, cake creator extraordinaire. But the book's nonstop action and judiciously doled out clues will keep both romance and mystery lovers riveted until the Dickensian denouement.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A bubbly blend of farcical humor and madcap mystery"
--Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dell (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440241294
• ISBN-13: 978-0440241294
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hello! I'm a sea captain's daughter who grew up in Panama, Cape Cod, and points in between. I attended Macalester College in St. Paul, and earned a masters in library science at the University of Washington. And I've been cooking up stories ever since I could think.

Over the years I've occupied myself with several occupations. I've been an academic librarian in Walla Walla, an executive speechwriter in Seattle, and a rather improbable nanny in Singapore. Along the way I wrote science fiction stories that appeared in Asimov's, F&SF, and Universe - not to mention reprints in Portuguese and Lithuanian!

Then my best friend and I got married (though not to each other) within the same few months. The fun of planning our weddings, combined with an evening course in mystery writing, led to the creation of Carnegie Kincaid, bridal consultant and amateur sleuth. VEILED THREATS, published by Bantam Dell in January 2001, was soon followed down the aisle by DIED TO MATCH, MAY THE BEST MAN DIE, DEATH TAKES A HONEYMOON, and now my latest, YOU MAY NOW KILL THE BRIDE.

I was long-time Seattleite, just like Carnegie, but I've been living in the sunshine and sagebrush of Idaho with my husband and our two Welsh corgis. Now we're in the process of moving to Portland, Oregon - a new adventure! I'm a gratefully healthy breast cancer survivor, and I love to go hiking in the mountains and to throw parties - though none quite as fancy as the show-stoppers that Carnegie puts on.

Some of the events in my books are inspired by real wedding stories that I hear from readers. So if you have a triumph, a disaster, or just a funny tale to tell, please email me via my website at www.deborahdonnelly.org. Thanks for reading!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Vastly Improving Series, October 27, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: May the Best Man Die (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

I had almost quit reading this series after the first book which I did not particularly like, but decided to continue with the other two books that were available and now that I have read the third book, May The Best Man Die, I'm glad that I did. This book I believe is a great improvement over the first two books.

Veiled Threats: Carnegie Kincaid is a wedding planner who seems to have a murder along with each of her events. I would think clients would be reluctant to continue coming to her. I knew who the killer was almost from the beginning of the book and the plot was so convoluted I wished everyone had been killed by the end.

Died To Match: The second book was a slight improvement in that the mystery was much more interesting, but was ruined by what I thought a not very well thought out killer. Even when the book was over, I didn't believe who the killer was.

I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle the third book, but it turned out to be very good. The mystery was interesting, the killer was a complete surprise but fitted in perfectly with the storyline. I love the relationship between Carnegie and Aaron her on again / off again reporter boyfriend. She has some great supporting people, Boris the florist, Her best friend Lily and the hilarious Buckmeister family, whose first appeared in Died to Match and are still planning their daughter's Christmas wedding in this book. The plans for this wedding gives new meaning to the word tacky.

Even though I didn't find the first two books to be very good, I think it's important to start with them, because they do give you a real feel of the characters, their backgrounds and explanations as to why they are doing certains things in later books.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Only Gets Better...., March 14, 2004

By 

K. A. Stevenson "WIAPilot" (Tucson) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: May the Best Man Die (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Deborah Donnelly has a great series with her sleuth/wedding planner - Carnegie Kincaid. The plot/subplots are great and her wedding and party planning ideas are pretty good as well.

I would not have missed reading about the Christmas wedding for anything. The "Killer B's" were great. I am going to miss them and hope that somehow they'll be included in the next book if only slightly. (Kind of how the southern Sheriff always managed to appear SOMEWHERE in the James Bond movies.)

This is not a "gruesome" murder series. It is a joy to find another great read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This series just gets better and better!, October 1, 2003

By 

Kate Everett (Shoreline, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: May the Best Man Die (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Who can resist a wedding? Especially a wedding surrounded by murder, yuletide mayhem, and a wonderful cast of characters led by smart and sexy wedding planner, Carnegie Kincaid. Her bumpy romance with Aaron is irresistable, and the secondary characters are just plain fun (love those Buckmeisters!)

Perfect weekend reading!