Memories Can Be Murder : The Fifth Charlie Parker Mystery (Charlie Parker Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Connie Shelton (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charlie Parker Mysteries | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

The fifth Charlie Parker mystery by acclaimed author Connie Shelton takes Charlie back to the dark events leading to her parent's fatal plane crash and her father's top secret work at the Sandia Labs during the Cold War. Work that still has people worried enough to kill.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Upon returning to her New Mexico home after visiting her fiancein Hawaii, private investigator Charlie Parker discovers that her mother and father, who was a scientist at Sandia Labs, were killed in a suspicious small plane crash. When Charlie starts asking questions, a series of thefts ensues, and the body count climbs. She ultimately realizes that she must unravel the past to save her future. Despite its convoluted plot, which reaches back to the cold war, and its abrupt ending, this novel offers memorable details about flying and an edgy, paranoid atmosphere. Recommend this one to those who like the scientific mysteries of Camille Minichino. John Rowen

Review

"Charlie is slick, appealing, and nobody's fool - just what readers want in an amateur sleuth." -- Booklist

"Shelton has created a female sleuth with an original slant to her methods." -- Small Press Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Intrigue Press; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890768189
• ISBN-13: 978-1890768188
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,968,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

...Every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, somewhere in the world, someone downloads a Connie Shelton mystery...

A personal Thank You to all my readers who make this little statistic possible. Having fun with my writing, and connecting with readers--that's what being a mystery writer means to me. And I LOVE what I do!

It began in 1985 when I started writing my first novel, without much clue how to go about it. Two years and 500 pages later, when I finally typed 'The End,' I felt a huge rush of excitement. That book took third place in the Southwest Writers competition and began making the rounds of publishers. I simply started writing my second, and then my third books.

After publishing ten of my Charlie Parker mysteries, I decided to branch out with a second series and I created the character of Samantha Sweet. One of the ways in which I earned a little extra pocket money during my high school years was to bake and decorate cakes--hence, a career for Samantha based on my own experiences.

In 2009 I switched publishers and was off on a new adventure, seeing all of my books made available for Kindle and the other ebook devices that were just beginning to take off in the book world. It's been an exciting time in publishing and I'm loving the new formats and the ability to personally connect with readers all over the world via my newsletter and my website at connieshelton.com.


* * *

Besides writing the Charlie Parker and Samantha Sweet mysteries, Connie is an award-winning essayist. Her work has been published in both small and major anthologies, like Chicken Soup For the Writer's Soul, and her short stories have won several prizes. She has also been a commercial hot air balloon pilot and holds the women's world altitude record for size AX-4 balloons. She has been featured in Who's Who and The World Who's Who of Women. She and her husband live in northern New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Charlie Parker mystery, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Memories Can Be Murder : The Fifth Charlie Parker Mystery (Charlie Parker Mysteries) (Hardcover)

When Charlie Parker was a teenager her parents died in a plane crash. Being spoiled and preoccupied with her prom, Charlie thought they were going on a vacation. However, years later Charlie learns that her parents were actually going on a business trip sponsored by her father's employer the Scandia Corporation. Instead of pilot error or mechanical failure, Charlie finds out that a bomb blew up her parent's plane. Scandia Corporation squashed the investigation.

Charlie feels the need to learn why her parents were murdered. Obsessed by the incident, Charlie reacts the way she always acts when she needs to know something. She starts her own investigation. She begins with her father's ex-secretary, who sends her to a possible informant. However, before they meet, an assassin murders Charlie's pigeon. Someone ransacks Charlie's office and Hannah's home seeking information they believe Charlie possesses. In spite of the increasing danger, the tenacious Charlie continues her inquiries wondering what the unknown assailants think she owns.

The fifth Charlie Parker mystery is the best of the series as the story line combines an emotional look inside Charlie with a well-designed who-done-it. Charlie's romance with her live-in lover helps relieve some of the growing tension surfaced by her investigation. MEMORIES CAN BE MURDER demonstrates Connie Shelton's talent as the audience will find a night with Charlie is an exciting evening.

5.0 out of 5 stars Charlie Parker - Secret Agent, January 16, 2012

By 

Bill King (Elizabeth, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Memories Can Be Murder: The Fifth Charlie Parker Mystery (The Charlie Parker Mystery Series) (Kindle Edition)

Memories can be Murder - This is the 5th in the Charlie Parker Series and my 5th as well. This was the best to date it started out slowly as Charlie finds out that the plane accident that killed both her parents 15 years earlier may not have been accident after all. So Charlie starts poking around asking questions as any good PI would do but as she does people seem to be dying and other out of the ordinary things seem to be happening all around her. What starts out as simply asking questions turns into a full blown spy novel worthy of James Bond . If your thinking of reading a Charlie Parker book don't start with Memories can be Murder read a couple of the earlier books first you need to know Charlie a bit so you can understand her thinking and motives before diving into the book but make sure you read it's Awesome.

4.0 out of 5 stars Charlie investigates her parents' death, March 20, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: Memories Can Be Murder : The Fifth Charlie Parker Mystery (Charlie Parker Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Two events conspire to put Charlie Parker on an investigation of her parents' death. The first was that her neighbor, who helped raise her after her parents' death, confides that their plane crash was not an accident, but was the result of a bomb which had been planted on the plane. The second event is that Charlie's fiance, Drake, will soon be coming from Hawaii to move in with her. This necessitates rearranging some of her things to make room for Drake and her discovery of some of her father's old papers in the attic. Her father had been an employee of Sandia Corporation and had been privy to some confidential government information. Working on the theory that her father had some incriminating evidence about someone at his job, Charlie begins interviewing his former co-workers and looking for answers to her questions about the plane crash. Bad things begin happening to Charlie and the people she talks to, and the net begins to tighten around Charlie and the murderer. This is another good entry in the Charlie Parker series.