Customer Reviews

A Midsummer Night's Scream (Jane Jeffry Mysteries, No. 15)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I have read every one of Jill Churchill's books, both from the Jane Jeffry series and the "Grace and Favor" series. I've always thought of the Jane Jeffry books as special treats -- each a quick read loaded with good characters, humor, a dead body or two (usually offed in a creative way), and a great friendship between Jane and Shelly. Jane has always seemed like, well, me! She is a stay-at-home mom, who is happily involved in her kids' lives, in her romance with Mel, and in many local crimes. OK, so the crime part isn't at all like my own life, but the rest of the stuff is! The last book, "Bell, Book, and Scandal" was just awful. I reluctantly picked up this book, hoping that maybe whoever had been masquerading as Jill Churchill for "Bell, . . ." had been exorcised and that Jill herself was back! But alas, this book is only marginally better than the last.

Jane is helping Shelly evaluate caterers at a theatre Shelly's husband has donated to the local college. A lackluster play is being produced, and a member of the production is killed. No one seems to care much, and Mel actually asks Jane and Shelly for their opinions on the case -- a big departure from the character's usual behavior, where he constantly warns Jane to keep her nose out of his murder investigation. Why the change? I couldn't tell you, because it was never clear to me in the book. There is very little suspense, the case is solved, and Jane and Shelly work on needlepoint.

I am really disappointed, because I miss the old Jane and Shelly, and Mel. None of the characters seem to have the depth that they used to, and the writing has become so stilted I still believe that Jill Churchill is letting someone else write the book. I just can't get over the change in writing style -- it doesn't make sense.

I don't know if I'm going to read the next Jane Jeffry book, whenever that comes out. I'll still read the "Grace and Favor" books, because those have been consistently entertaining. Again, this is where I get confused because why is there such a difference between the two series?

When Shelley Novak's husband donates a run-down theatre to the community college, a novel idea strikes her. The college is about to feature a play by one of its professors, Steven Imry, and Shelley has volunteered to provide the food for the rehearsals. What she has in mind is to get a few caterers to provide the food (a different caterer each night) and then pick the best one to cater for her husband's annual managers' dinner. Shelley wants Jane to help her sample the food and take note of how the caterers handle things. And as a bonus, Jane and Shelley will be able to watch the rehearsals. While not completely enthusiastic, Jane allows herself to be persuaded and soon the two friends are sitting in on what must be one of the worst plays of the century. The play is awful and half-baked, the playwright-director is an oaf, and the actors, save for the professional aging actress, the likable Ms Bunting, are mediocre at best. So that the last thing Jane or Shelley was expecting was for one of the actors to get murdered. And while neither Jane nor Shelley feel much of a bond to those involved in this murder investigation, they naturally feel a little curious as to why this particular actor was murdered. And then a few days later the janitor is attacked. This time Mel Van Dyne (the detective in charge of the homicides and Jane's longtime lover) in eager to hear Jane's insights. And so once again, Jane and Shelley find themselves delving into a murder investigation...

I remember the first Jane Jeffry mystery I read, "The Class Menagerie." I liked it so much that I went back to the bookstore the next day to get the other books in the series. Sadly, this will probably be the last Jane Jeffry mystery I read. It feels as if the heart has gone out of this series. The story plods along, the mystery in this particular installment was barely discernible, the other characters in this book (other than Ms Bunting) are not "fleshed out" and remain shadowy at best, and even Jane and Shelley seem lacking in enthusiasm and interest in discovering what's going on. All in all, "A Midsummer Night's Scream" was not a very interesting read.

Jill Churchill really seems to have lost her way with her Jane Jeffry series. In the book before this one, no one was murdered! In this one, we have a body, but Jane and her best friend Shelley are too busy doing needlepoint to do any real investigating.

Our tale begins when Jane and Shelley get involved with the local theatre company. Shelley makes the catering arrangements for the reharsals, and Jane agrees to be the official taster. It doesn't take long, however, for the pair to get a taste of how dramatic drama can be. A young actor who disagreed with the director gets himself murdered, and the janitor at the theatre gets bashed on the head and put into the hospital.

The crime-solving here is primarily done by Mel, Jane's police detective boyfriend. He's been in previous books in this series, mostly to shake his finger at Jane when she gets too nosey. But, this time, Mel is featured fairly prominently, and Jane is too busy with other things, i.e. needlepoint and getting her novel published, to do her own little investigation.

The murder actually seems kind of secondary here, as pages and pages are devoted to the finer points of needlepoint, how to get a book published and choose an agent, and what makes one caterer better than another. While Jane and Shelley languish in these safer pursuits (not once are their lives put in jeopardy!), Mel solves the murder. And, then, there's a very cheesey epilogue to let us know that basically everyone got what they deserved.

I guess my major problem is that, for two books now, Jane and Shelley just haven't acted like Jane and Shelley. Now that's a crime.

The Jane Jeffry series, while not towering classics, have generally been decent reads. Sadly, that is not the case in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SCREAM. This reads like someone's first attempt at writing a mystery novel. The dialogue is stilted, the characters are flat, and who wants to read about needlepoint lessons! I could hardly get through the book... A complete waste of time.

I love mysteries. I picked this book up at the library (thank goodness because I would NOT have paid for this). This is the worst mystery book I've ever read. The murder doesn't happen until way later in the book. The premise of taking needlepoint classes had me yawning. The dialouge didn't seem like real people would speak that way. Also, usually the least suspected person ends up being the murderer, but not in this case. It actually points out a potential suspect and then that suspect is in fact the murderer. There is no surprise element to this book. I would not recommend it.

Jane Jeffry's friend, Shelley Nowack, has agreed to find caterers to provide meals for participants in a play the local community college is putting on and asks Jane to help her. Jane agrees, figuring she can work on her latest hobby, needlepoint, while watching the rehearsal. She also hopes to get some ideas for a new book that she is writing. But Jane gets more than she bargained for when an actor in the play is murdered and the janitor at the theater is attacked. Jane's longtime boyfriend, police Detective Mel van Dyne, in investigating the case and asks for Jane's help as she knows the cast and crew quite well. Jane has plenty of suspects for Mel, including the director-playwright, Steven Imry and all the cast members.

Jill Churchill's last Jane Jeffrey mystery "Bell, Book, and Scandal" was pretty bad but I had hoped that was just a one-time thing. Unfortunately, "A Midsummer Night's Scream" is almost as bad, if not worse. Outside of Jane's success as a novelist, there is no character development and the only new interesting character is Gloria Bunting. The writing is stiff and some passages, such as the needlepoint class instructions seem like they are quoted from books. The dialogue is awkward and artificial and at least once Churchill loses track of which character is speaking. Even cozy bits, such as Jane's cat catching a mole are badly written and feel forced.

The Jane Jeffry mystery series used to be a light, cozy, pleasant read and it's a shame to see the series go downhill so fast. I recommend reading the other books in the series and skipping the last two. Hopefully that the next one will be better and puts the series back on track.

I like Jane. I want to like this series. However, after reading the latest offering, I'm hard pressed to muster much, if any, enthusiasm for the one that will follow this book.

One thing, right off the bat was that I had no way to picture Mel at all. It was stressed that he is very good looking and a swell dresser. That didn't narrow it down much for me. Can't say as I recall details of Jane or Shelley's looks either; but, that wasn't as much of an issue - perhaps because their parts are so character-driven.

The mystery angle was OK (standard cozy). The premise that Paul bought the theater "on impulse" was a bit contrived and out-of-character; Shelley wouldn't be quite so fatalistic about the fact that the building was unusable (thus the donation as a loss-cutting mechanism). The catering issue was a bit weak, but buy-into-able (though transparently so), to get Jane involved with the murder mystery.

The book deal sub-plot was more than I could swallow though. Without re-reading the previous story, here's that chronology as I understand it ...

Jane had been working on her story for several years, off and on, before deciding to bring an outline and sample chapters to a mystery convention (a few months before this current story begins); registrants are provided the opportunity to present their ideas to a couple of editors for review. One of the editors likes what she saw of Jane's work, suggesting Jane send her a finished manuscript when the entire book is complete. Felicity, a noted mystery writer with whom Jane becomes friends is also favorably impressed with Jane's proposal. So far, so good. Credibility intact.

In this book, Jane mentions to Shelley that she sent the manuscript to Felicity for feedback, who sent back her suggestions for revision (chiefly, moving the "mystery" angle up by 100 pages). Jane tells Shelley that she spent "two days" on revision, and then sent a second draft out to the editor (note that Felicity's is the only feedback Jane gets on her work before sending it out) Two days? I would think that one would need a lot more revision (AND feedback!) than that.

I realize that this is fiction, but Jane's good fortune here was mind-boggling. The editor dropped what she was doing (in late July!) to devote her attention to convincing the marketing department to accept Jane's story for immediate acceptance. Within a couple of weeks of receiving a second draft from an unpublished fiction author (granted they met at the conference), the editor calls Jane offering a contract? Moreover, when a stunned Jane asks about changes, Melody tells her she doesn't need any? She then insists that Jane get an agent to negotiate the contract.

HEL-LO? If Melody's so concerned about not negitiating directly with a [new] author, shouldn't she have advised Jane to get an agent at their initial meeting back at the convention? Wouldn't Felicity have advised her to send a [final] draft to potential agents, with advice to stress to that Melody had liked what she saw?

I understand that the author is trying to set Jane up as a literary success, which is fine. However, unless Jane is incredibly talented, these events unfolded in a totally bizarre fashion. It would have been much more realistic for Melody to have returned the manuscript with a cover letter containing some very positive comments (and suggested changes), and informing Jane that she (Melody) was looking forward to receiving the next draft directly from an agent. That would have been entirely credible to me.

The epilogue format was odd, and really left me wondering about the author's intentions for the balance of the series.

I used to love the Jane Jeffry series, but the last two installments were really disappointing. I'm certain if that was her first manuscript, Jill Churchill would never be a published author. The mystery takes backseat to needle point instructions, the characters are lifeless and the dialog forced. Someone listening to Jane and Shelley's conversations would never in a million years guess those two are best friends. The biggest disappointment is the lack of the laugh-out-loud humor which was so endearing in the earlier books in the series. A real shame...

I don't know what's happened to this series or this author.

The book was horrible. The mystery was very lame, the characters didn't interest me at all, and I felt like I was reading a copy of "Needlepoint For Dummies." If those classes were supposed to be a backdrop for the story, someone needs to tell the author that it was way too overpowering.

While reading a book, Jane comments on how she likes the way the author "buried her clues" and how she hoped to do the same. Yet I counted at least three instances where the clues weren't buried -- they just weren't given, such as when Mel "gave Imry the information he needed." How is the reader supposed to figure out what's going on when the author is holding back?

The dialog between characters was also stupid. Shelley and Jane discuss Shelly's husband's "chain of fast food Greek restaurants." They've been best friends for years...do they really have to specify what type of business Shelley's husband is in when they talk to each other? I also felt that there was a lot of useless, inane stuff filling the book -- such as where all the needlepointers went after class and what everyone ate for lunch at a restaurant. Was the author trying to fill a word count quota?

I really hope the author gets this series back on track or I'm done with it.

I love Agatha Christie novels and other cozy murder mysteries. But this one really isn't worth the time. This is my first Jill Churchill book and I found it lacking in every way. The dialog alone was groan worthy (people just don't converse in real life the way they do in this book)and much of the action unbelievable.

Who can possible believe that a police officer in Chicago will know the names and family histories of area residents, give rides to the physical disabled (especially during their work shift) and arrange for family housing in a hospital?

The whole story is very flat. A cardboard cutout of life, relationships and situations. Sort of like a person who had never eaten any type of sweet trying to describe the rich scent, complex flavor and silky mouth feel of a high quality chocolate mousse.

This book is not only my first Jill Churchill, it will be my last.