Nasty Breaks (Lee Ofsted Mystery) [Hardcover]

Charlotte Elkins (Author), Aaron J. Elkins (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lee Ofsted Mystery | Publication Date: November 1997

The Agatha Award-winning team of Charlotte and Aaron Elkins hits another hole-in-one with the third entry in their bestselling series featuring pro-golfer/amateur sleuth Lee Ofsted. Substituting at a week-long golf school off the coast of New England, Lee finds herself squarely in the middle of an investigation of a kidnapping and murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Twenty-five years ago, salvage divers Stuart Chappell and Benny Trotter, desperate to escape the stormy seas off Block Island, abandoned their partner Andy Gottlieb as he searched for the treasures aboard the long-sunken Good Hope. Now, even though Stuart has long purchased Benny's partnership for a pittance and made a fortune for himself, the two of them are back together at the island's Mooncussers Inn, where Benny's hosting the annual executive-planning-and-golf-retreat for Stuart's Sea Recovery Systems (SRS). The teaching pro will be motormouth telemarketer Jackie Piper, but what golf package would be complete without struggling LPGA pro Lee Ofsted (Rotten Lies, 1995, etc.) to give chipping and putting tips, chat up the competitors for the executive vice-presidency of SRS, and run into her usual quotient of felonies? The headliners this time are the attempted snatch of Stuart's imperious wife Darlene (``the Grand Czarina'') by kidnappers seeking a ransom of exactly $650,993, and the murder of Stuart, who's stabbed in the neck with an iron spike from- -that's right, the Good Hope itself. Is the motive simple avarice? Jealousy among the SRA also-rans? Or revenge on the part of one of the divers' distant relatives (more numerous here than at a family reunion)? More to the point: Will Lee ever get any closer to a round of golf than the loss of her graphite-shafted Cobra lob wedge? Dependable light entertainment. Add two strokes to your score, though, if you can't spot the murderer before the ninth green. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile

Amateur detectives come in all guises-why not a struggling female golf pro? Hired to teach at a salvage company's executive retreat on Block Island, Lee Ofsted stumbles onto a murder. The suspects are more caricatures than characters, and most are related to each other and a 20-year-old diving accident. There are some genuinely funny scenes here, and O'Malley reads as if she's in on the joke. She also brings out Ofsted's intelligence and courage. This is lightweight fare, competently served. And it helps if you like golf. J.G. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Pr (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892965967
• ISBN-13: 978-0892965960
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,728,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!!!, October 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Nasty Breaks (Lee Ofsted Mystery) (Hardcover)

Professional golfer Lee Ofsted has just landed an instructor's job assisting fellow pro Jackie Piper at a beautiful Rhode Island resort. Her job is to provide golf lessons to the employees of a marine salvage company. To Lee, this is an easy way to combine a vacation with making an easy grand a day for a week. However, the anticipated idyllic week goes sour at the fourth hole when Darlene Chappell, the spouse of the salvage company president, Stuart, is almost kidnapped. Soon afterward, Stuart is found murdered.

Lee and her friend begin to investigate the murder. To their amazement, many people had the motive to kill Stuart. However, as she gets closer to the truth, Lee literally finds herself in a sudden death game in which her life is the ultimate stake.

The third Lee Ofsted mystery novel is a fabulous who-done-it due to the brilliant characterizations of the lead protagonist, her associates, and all the duffers hooking their swing. The story line is interesting as Charlotte and Aaron Elkins scribes a fabulous amateur sleuth tale. This reviewer recommends to lovers of golf and amateur sleuth stories, all three books (the previous two are WICKED SLICE and ROTTEN LIES) because they are superb mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Of Golf and Murder, May 25, 2009

By 

Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nasty Breaks (Lee Ofsted Mystery) (Hardcover)

This is the third of a series of four murder mysteries featuring lady golfer Lee Ofsted and her boyfriend Graham Sheldon. The series to date consists of:

1) Wicked Slice
2) Rotten Lies
3) Nasty Breaks
4) Where have all the Birdies gone?


The prologue, in 1971, describes a tragic event during salvage operations off Block Island, a small and beautiful place off the coast of New England. Then the action cuts to "the present day" (approximately 1997 when the book was published).

Lee Ofsted is an up-and-coming lady golfer trying to make it in the Women's Professional Golf League. She is between tournaments when she gets a lucrative offer to spend a week teaching golf to executives of a salvage company at Block Island. And when her boyfriend Graham, a former cop who is now an international security consultant, gets a chance to join her on the island, it appears that Lee's stay on Block island will be most enjoyable.

But soon after she has arrived on the island, funny things start to happen. First there is a ludicrously inept attempt to kidnap a prominent person connected with the salvage company for whose executives the golf course is being run. Then Lee and Graham find the owner of the company murdered. And it soon appears that almost every senior executive had a motive for the killing.

Eventually a tale of greed and ambition going back almost two hundred years is discovered ...

Entertaining and well written murder mystery.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good entry in the series, January 28, 2010

By 

M. Detlefsen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nasty Breaks (Kindle Edition)

Third entry in the series. There was a seven year gap between the third and fourth volumes, far too long. Nice, straightforward mystery novel, no sex, violence or profanity. Likable characters. I learned most of what I know about golf from the two earlier books in the series, which I read when they first were published.


Kindle version somewhat marred by lots of typos, the proofreader gets a failing mark on this one.