Customer Reviews

Murder on the Candlelight Tour (Magnolia Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoy all of Hunter's books. They take place in the Carolinas and give good descriptions of the area. The book is an easy read and a good mystery. I hope she writes more1

I was hooked on this book from the first page. I have read all the books in the series and will continue as long as they are written. She has a fan for life.

It would be great if Amazon had all of Ellen's books,MURDER ON THE GHOST WALK,MURDER AT WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, MURDER AT THE AZEALIA FESTIVAL AND MURDER ON THE CANDLELIGHT TOUR. These books can still be bought in the WILMINGTON area or by logging on to ellenhunter.com

This author is a great writer and it's obvious that she has a great love for historic preservation and for old buildings. She is wonderful at painting a picture with words of how the houses and the areas look. I just have a hard time with her main character Ashley. Ashely is a rather self centered woman and a little to arrogant for my taste. She is all about her own feelings. While she does care about her friends and family (and tries to get a friend off a murder rap in this book) the way she goes about it is irksome. She is like a child when she doesn't get her way with her friend Jon and the detective she is dating, Nick. In one part of the book Nick has the courtesy to warn Ashley that he is about to arrest her friend Binkie (which is a strange name for a 72 year old man) and then she complains to her friend Rachel how Nick "thought he was doing her a kindness by warming her of the arrest" and follows that up with , "Honestly Rachel, what did I ever see in him?" Well, he was doing her a kindness! There are also parts in the book like when she's getting dressed she states, "I could be on the cover of Vogue", which just sounded arrogant to me. Some would call this self confidence which she does have, but that just came off as arrogant. She also comes off as a brash, selfish person who becomes so obsessed with getting her way that she does stupid things and puts her self in danger. She actually doesn't deserve the detective for a boyfriend. He has done nothing but try to do his job while being courteous and kind to her while she is manipulative, dishonest and childish with him. I managed to get through the book and loved the historical details, and the other characters in the book are well drawn and interesting.
Overall it was a great book, but there were many times I wanted to throttle Ashley for her self centered ness and for doing stupid things. I honestly don't find her to be real like able . However, I plan on reading the next book in the series to see if she becomes more like able. This is just my opinion, I am sure there are some readers who will like her. She does have good qualities and she is plucky and a loyal friend.