Customer Reviews

Perfect Sax: A Madeline Bean Novel

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Perhapse due to the larger number of pages (when compared with the rest of the series) perfect Sax manages to bring together not only a very effective two pronged mystery but a lot of the loose ends of Miss Bean's romantic life.
One of the best in the series.

After thoroughly enjoying Mumbo Gumbo, I looked forward to reading Jerrilyn Farmer's latest Madeline Bean novel, Perfect Sax. And I can say it was worth the wait. Lots of stuff going on in this book...

Madeline Bean has just finished putting on a catered event for a charitable group, and she's ready to go home and collapse. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. She finds some personal papers of a neighbor in her driveway and finds the person at the event. When she tries to tell him that she has them, he thinks that she is trying to blackmail him. His girlfriend also goes off the deep end on Maddie. A rare and expensive saxaphone which had a $100K bid turns up missing when people go to claim their winnings after the event. On her co-worker's request after the event, she loans her jeep to an employee for an emergency, but the employee turns up in Maddie's bedroom that night shot to death. When the neighbor whose papers she found also turns up murdered, she starts wondering if she's next. A number of people in her life could well be the killer and/or be involved in the theft, and she's not real sure who to trust. To make it worse, she's falling hard for this guy who might be involved, and she's still not sure how she feels about her ex-boyfriend cop who wasn't quite yet divorce from his wife.

Much like Mumbo Gumbo, the plot twists keep you guessing, and you don't get complete resolution until the end. Maddie's an extremely likeable character, and you easily identify with her as she's trying to stay alive and not lose her sanity. While her personal life is still up in the air at the end of the book, there is plenty of room to run with it in the next installment. Good read, and good job by the author.

Maddie Bean's catering and events planning business is becoming very chic with the rich, powerful and famous in Las Angeles and Hollywood. Her firm is catering an event to raise funds for the Woodburn School of Music so that gifted children who can't afford the fees can obtain a scholarship. The gala is a smashing success and Maddie is justifiably proud of her role in the affair.

She leaves the affair with a couple who bought a one hundred thousand dollar musical instrument for their son. Maddie loaned her car to an employee who needs to get to her boyfriend, because to is despondent over her boyfriend failing to earn his dissertation. Maddie arrives home to find police surrounding her house. Her employee lies dead in her bedroom. Not much time passes before Maddie discovers her neighbor is murdered, an angry man who was upset that Maddie found his private papers lying in her street. She not only thinks the two deaths are linked but she believes someone is out to kill her as well but nobody will believe her, thinking she is overwrought and upset.

Jerrilyn Farmer is a fabulous writer who has created one of the most delightful and charming amateur sleuth souls in the mystery world. The plot is fast-paced and action packed but the heart of this who-done-it lies with the characters and sorting out the villains from the heroes. PERFECT SAX has several sub-plots that make this tale all the more fascinating, especially someone stealing the valuable musical instrument.

Harriet Klausner

a caterer who solves murders. what could be more fun?? and jerrilyn packs a whole hoot into her novels -- cool characters, cool places, cool foodstuffs -- and it makes you want MORE.

I've read and loved every book in this series. But if I had to choose my favorite, PERFECT SAX would be it.

Who stole the silver sax that was auctioned off during the Jazz Ball--a swanky fundraising event catered by Mad Bean and her crew? How did one of the waitresses wind up dead in Madeline's bed? And who's that red-headed woman who keeps following Mad around town? In addition to exploring these intriguing mysteries, PERFECT SAX digs deeper into Mad's rocky relationship with the hunky Lt. Honnett.

The fast pace, tight plotting, and expertly drawn characters made this book impossible to put down.

Madeline Bean owns and runs Mad Bean Catering. They are catering an event to raise funds for the Woodburn School of Music. A rare saxophone is auctioned off for one hundred thousand dollars at the Jazz Ball. Unfortunately when the couple prepares to leave with their new saxophone, it is discovered the case is empty. Someone has stolen the saxophone at the auction.

Before coming to the Ball, Madeline found trash strewn around her yard. It turns out to the papers belong to a nearby neighbor. When she sees this neighbor at the Ball, she tries to set up a time to return the papers to him. He misunderstands and thinks she's trying to blackmail them.

Can this night get any stranger? Oh, yes. When Madeline Bean is involved, nothing is simple and uncomplicated.

When she finally gets home, and I'll let you read the story to find out about her adventure in getting home, she finds a woman has been murdered in her bed. The police thought it was her. When her friends hear the report, they think it's her. Even Chuck Honnett, her ex-boyfriend the police detective, thought it was her.

She goes to stay with Wes until things can be sorted out and her house cleaned up. Soon it is discovered that she is in danger. Who is after her and why? Who can she trust besides Wes?

Then there is another murder and Madeline decides she'd better look into things before she becomes the next victim.

This is a fabulous series. I always enjoy reading about Madeline Bean's adventures. It is always a fast-paced, easy cozy to read. I can't wait for the next one!

The characters are wonderful. I always enjoy mysteries with food in them. And the writing is superb. I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

This is a particularly well-plotted mystery -- complex but not so complex you need charts to keep track of timelines and characters. There are several subplots that manage to come together in one way or another, and a few red herrings to distract the reader.

Madeline Bean, caterer to the wealthy of Los Angeles, is the "detective" of this story. If I had to say what the book is about, it would be hard to know where to begin, because of all the subplots. Would I begin with the private papers she finds on her driveway? With the catered event where a saxaphone gets stolen? With the owner of the private papers (who is at the event) getting so upset when she tries to tell him she's found these papers? With a wild car ride with a very angry man? Or with the corpse found at her house?

The action never stops in this book. It will keep you up late for sure. And I was genuinely surprised by the killer, although it all made sense.

"Perfect Sax" opens with Hollywood event planner Madeline Bean and her partners Wes and Holly basking in the successful completion of a Jazz Ball fundraiser for L.A.'s exclusive Woodburn music school. Just as the guests are leaving the soiree, it's discovered that an expensive saxophone which was auctioned off at the party is missing. After many days of preparation for the party and a harrowing trip home afterwards, an exhausted Madeline returns home well past midnight, only to make the grisly discovery of the body of a young woman who has been shot to death right in Madeline's bed. All this occurs in the first twenty pages of the book, and the pace of this story barely slows down over the course of the whole book.

Madeline finds herself attracted to a charming playboy who is the brother of one of the socialites who planned the jazz fundraiser. Madeline's ex-boyfriend, Detective Chuck Honnett of the Los Angeles police department is back on the scene to investigate the murder at Maddie's house. Honnett also is trying to get Madeline to take him back. There's a lot going on in this book, making it a real page-turner.

Auther Jerrilyn Farmer adds to the enjoyable jazz theme of the book by using the titles of jazz standards as the title of each chapter. Whether or not you've read the other Madeline Bean books, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good mystery with smart, fun characters.

Madeline Bean, Los Angeles party planner and caterer, is a little worried when a rare saxophone from the charity auction goes missing from her gala event for the Woodward School. But that's nothing compared to the trauma of arriving home to find her house surrounded by the police and a dead woman in her bed. When a neighbor turns up dead as well and Madeline thinks she's being stalked, she feels like her whole life is falling apart.

Chuck Hornett, her ex-boyfriend and cop, tries to ease Madeline's fears by loaning her a gun but only on the condition that she learns how to handle it. Chuck has been catapulted back into her life because of the murder and he wants to win back her affection. But Maddie has a serious problem with the fact that he has returned to his estranged wife to help her through her cancer treatments. Just to complicate her love life even more, she becomes involved with the brother of one of her Woodward ball clients. The young and handsome Dexter Wyatt has her heart fluttering and her pulse racing, but is he just too good to be true? Madeline jumps feet first into tying all of her mysteries together including the mysteries of her heart.

Author Jerrilyn Farmer manages to neatly wrap up the seemingly impossible tangle of insurance fraud, hookers, obsession, and murder. Along the way, she gives us sometimes glamorous, sometimes scathing insights into the lives of the LA rich and powerful. The frenzy of plot twists and motivations are nicely balanced with explorations of Madeline's issues with trust and relationships. The characters are likeable and complex and I enjoyed the way that Farmer ties in Maddie's personal issues with her investigations.

I have always loved Farmer's work, but with this one she has outdone herself. Madeline puts together a black and white ball for a music school, and one event leads to another until a corpse is found in Madeline's own house! Added to this is a flirtation with a handsome young playboy, even as Maddie tries to figure out how she feels about her old boyfriend, Chuck Honnett. It all adds up to a fun and fast, very sexy read, not to mention an extremely clever mystery. Brava, Jerrilyn Farmer! Hurry up and write the next one!!!