Customer Reviews

Midsummer Murder (Linda Haggerty Mysteries)

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Linda Haggerty frets her way through another murder mystery that initially seemed to promise a lot but somehow failed to deliver.

The Easton Arts Retreat is celebrating it's 50 anniversary, and the Jeremy Ash Dance Company has been invited to open the festivities. For Jeremy Ash, the director and founder of said dance company, this gig is a very important one, as, not only was he was the proud recipient of the prestigious Easton Scholarship, but also because Marguerite Easton was one of the few people to offer him support and help when he was trying to kick his drug addiction. However a very grim portent of things to come greets the dance company as soon as they reach the retreat. The retreat is nestled amongst some very sheer mountain-like hills, and one of the students, Larry Cleveland, at the summer camp seems to have accidentally fallen to his death. The local sheriff, who has a personal grudge against Marguerite Easton (his ex-fiancee had dumped him to marry one of the Retreat's counselors) and who seems to be dangerously homophobic, is all set to make more of this accident than it is, when another student goes missing.

Lindy is seriously disturbed by all that she's witnessing. The Retreat seems to be a hotbed of secrets and innuendo. To begin with, it looks as if Larry Cleveland was not a very well liked young man, and it appears as if he was very adapt at providing sexual favours in order to get what he wanted. The sheriff thinks that he was all set to blackmail one of the Retreat's counselors, when he was murdered by said counselor, who just happens to be the very one that married the sheriff's ex-fiancee. Could the sheriff be right? And then there is the strange behaviour of Jeremy Ash. Jeremy seems to be very tense and very much on edge, and it is affecting the manner in which he deals with the members of his company, and most importantly, with Biddy, Lindy's best friend. What does Jeremy know, and could it seriously harm the Easton Retreat? On top of it all, Lindy's husband, Glen (who disapproves of her tendency to fall into murder investigations) is about to turn up for the weekend. What will he have to say about this latest suspicious death that Lindy seems to be mixed-up in? Not only that, but Jeremy has invited Bill, the ex-policeman with whom Lindy has been solving mysteries (and with whom Lindy has a highly charged relationship), down to unofficially take a look at what's going on, because he fears what the sheriff may do. What will happen when Glen and Bill finally meet? And where is the missing student? Is he dead, or has he merely run away? And if so, why?

"The Midsummer Murders" held out a lot of promise. From the manner in which the first few chapters were shaping, I expected a whole more than was finally delivered, esp given Jeremy's and his counselor friend's strange behaviour. As with the previous mystery in this series, "The High Seas Murder" a lot of things occurred that had very little to do with the mystery at hand -- Lindy's relationship with Bill, what this could mean to her marriage, Biddy's frustration over her relationship with Jeremy, etc -- with the clues and hints about what really going on in this murder mystery strewn about for the reader to collect and piece together. And then, suddenly in the last quarter of the novel, the mystery suddenly took off, and everything fell into place. However, I still came away feeling shortchanged. Many characters in this novel could have done with a lot more development, and that tight pacing that keeps you glued to the pages was frequently absent. This book had all the potential of being a really good read, instead it was filled with distractingly extraneous bits.

If you like game-shows like Fox's "Murder in Small Town X" where you get to piece together all the relevant information, from all the nonessential stuff made available to you, then this novel should satisfy amply.

Lindy Graham-Haggerty was a successful dancer before she retired to raise two children. Now she faces empty nest syndrome while her husband travels more than he is home. Lindy goes back to work as the rehearsal director for the Jeremy Ash Dance Company. She is now on the road traveling with the troupe to the to Easton Arts Retreat, a writers and visual arts colony, in upstate New York.

Jeremy got his start there and his company is opening the season on the retreats fiftieth anniversary. Just before they arrive at their destination, a student is killed falling off a cliff. The local sheriff, who hates the retreat, is looking to make the boy's death a murder or a suicide. When a second boy turns up missing, the sheriff arrests the man who stole his girlfriend many years ago, a person he hates with a passion. Lindy, with the help of her friends in the troupe, tries to find the real culprit so the show can go on.

The cutthroat world of dance juxtaposed against the intense avarice of the perpetrators making the disparate groups seem more like mirror images of each other. Shelly Freydont is quite good at characterization that enables her to create fully developed yet diverse players. MIDSUMMER MURDER is a real puzzle because the main perpetrator is right in the reader's face, but difficult to see because the culprit still blends in with the rest of the forest of suspects.

Harriet Klausner

This is a fine author and an easy to read mystery. The story line is good and entertaining

Shelley Freydont continues with her series and provides her customary wit and incisive look into the world of dance. It's suspenseful, quirky and highly entertaining. She thoroughly understands and communicates the world of theatrical intrigue. A must-read for murder mystery fans and theatre nuts.

Great addition to the series. Love these characters.