Miss Melville Regrets [Unknown Binding]

Evelyn E. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 1987

What can a woman do? Susan Melville's trust fund is dwindling, her teaching job is terminated, her lover is abroad for the season, and her apartment is going co-op.
So naturally Miss Melville decides to shoot herself at a posh society party. Unfortunately, she misses -- and kills the guest of honor instead. When she slips out the door, a stranger follows. He thanks her for doing the job for him, and Miss Melville's new career is born.
Of course she has scruples. Miss Melville won't kill just anybody, but she's about to face a job that even she will find a challenge of the most dangerous order, an assignment she just might regret -- for good . . . .

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

What can a woman do? Susan Melville's trust fund is dwindling, her teaching job is terminated, her lover is abroad for the season, and her apartment is going co-op.
So naturally Miss Melville decides to shoot herself at a posh society party. Unfortunately, she misses -- and kills the guest of honor instead. When she slips out the door, a stranger follows. He thanks her for doing the job for him, and Miss Melville's new career is born.
Of course she has scruples. Miss Melville won't kill just anybody, but she's about to face a job that even she will find a challenge of the most dangerous order, an assignment she just might regret -- for good . . . .

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Fawcett (June 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449212599
• ISBN-13: 978-0449212592
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,946,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent and entertaining mystery., January 10, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Melville Regrets

_Miss Melville Regrets_ is a well-written story of an artistic, forty-ish former socialite who becomes a paid assassin. In this highly entertaining first book in the series, Miss Melville -- out of money, out of a job, and soon to be out of a place to live -- decides to kill herself at a banquet to publicize her plight. On impulse, she instead turns her gun on the man being honored at the banquet, a wealthy and uncaring man who has caused some of her misfortune, and kills him neatly and efficiently with a single shot through the forehead. In the hubbub that follows, she is hustled out of the banquet hall by a stranger. He turns out to be a hired assassin who had been assigned to kill the very man Miss Melville had shot. He is so impressed by Miss Melville's skill with a gun that he recruits her as a paid assassin. The remainder of the book recounts her adventures in her new profession and evolves into a mystery as Miss Melville tries to figure out who is the shadowy figure who sponsors the assassinations. One of the most enjoyable parts of the book is learning about the world of banquets. Banquets are usually held to raise money for charity; the people invited are the rich but rather dim social set who have inherited more money than brains. We also learn about people who entertain themselves by crashing these events; for them, it's an opportunity to dress up and get a free meal. Miss Melville's unique position is that she is a member of both groups -- a former socialite who is now penniless. The quality of writing is first-rate. Evelyn E. Smith's language and style are always intelligent, fluid, and correct. Unfortunately, the copy-editing and proof-reading were sloppy; the book abounds in typographical errors. There are three more books in the series: _Miss Melville Returns_, _Miss Melville's Revenge_ (out of print), and _Miss Melville Rides a Tiger_ (also out of print).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure!, February 22, 2010

By 

birdwalker "birdwalker" (Friday Harbor, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Miss Melville Regrets (Hardcover)

Why did it take me so long to find this author?! I have just finished reading all four available Miss Melville books, laughing all the while. You don't have to be a native New Yorker to appreciate Smith's sly puncturing of the pretensions of the upwardly mobile sheep who grab onto anything that seems to be the latest fashionable, upscale trend. You probably don't have to have been raised to behave "properly" to catch the humor in the now self-imposed behavioral restrictions the heroine cannot shake. And if you have been frustrated by all the crime and injustice in the world today, you are going to enjoy the thoroughly (or is it?) preposterous way in which Miss Melville settles with the despicable. The ending of the fourth book, Miss Melville Rides a Tiger, is a bit far-fetched, but that is the only time in all four books that the far-fetched isn't totally fetching.

Start with the first in the series, Miss Melville Regrets: it's so well-plotted. And when you finish the fourth, please do me a favor: contact Penguin Books and beg them to publish number five, Miss Melville Runs For Cover, which they have announced for publication at least three times since 1993 but have not yet managed to do.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miss Melville Regrets, February 14, 2010

By 

Connie J. Wehmeyer (Warwick NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Miss Melville Regrets (Hardcover)

I love these Miss Melville stories. I can't believe that there are not more of them. This one I had purchased as a gift because I refuse to part with my only copy even as a loan!

The idea behind them is hysterical and they are so well written! Evelyne E. Smith, where are you?

Bring more on! Connie