Customer Reviews

A Quiche Before Dying (Jane Jeffry Mysteries, No. 3)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jill Churchill has written another wonderful Jane Jeffry mystery. When Jane's mother comes to visit, Jane agrees to attend a writing class with her. Little does she know one of the would-be authors has murderous intentions against another classmate. When the police don't seem to be working fast enough for Jane's taste, Jane and her friend Shelley decide to take the investigation into their own hands. This case is a tough one to crack because everyone in the class hated the victim. As if that weren't enough, everyone seems to have secrets of their own.

I couldn't get to the part where the killer was revealed fast enough -- I was completely stumped! Yet when it all came out, it made so much sense -- the clues were all laid out in the book. This book was a quick, delightful read with immensely likable characters. I highly recommend it to all readers, mystery buffs or not.

Jane Jeffrey is a fun character to follow. I enjoyed this book b/c readers are able to meet Jane's mother - who is delightful. This story is interesting and I was very surprised at the ending! This series is awesome. Even if you happen to read one out of order, there is no trouble understanding the story. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries, comedy and fiction that is true to life.

While I still remain a fan of Jill Churchill and her Jane Jeffry series, this book was a slight disappointment compared to her first two. This mystery revolves around Jane and her classmates in a week-long seminar she takes with her mother and sidekick/neighbor, Shelley. Naturally Jane gets involved when someone bumps off Mrs. Pryce, the crotchety old lady from class. Obviously it's one of the classmates, but who?

Like the old saying, "too many cooks spoil the broth?" Well in this case I believe too many suspects spoiled the mystery! So while it didn't keep me from finishing the story (and guessing who did it before the end) it was a little too "busy." However, Churchill's writing style and flair for humor never cease, and for that reason it was worth reading.

Jane Jeffrey, at the last minute, enrolls in a local writing course. Of course, the class is full of the usual eccentrics, including the town's totally obnoxious crone. Needless to say, the poisoned tongue this old biddy creates too much damage for one of the class members. She finally gets her comeuppance and winds up dead after sampling a bit of poisoned quiche at a class pot luck supper.

Everyone in the class has a motive for killing, and it is up to Jane to find out who did it.

Like Jill Churchill's other books, I figured out who the murderer was before the end of the book, but it was pleasant cozy mystery.

Recommend reading.

Jane Jeffry decides to beat summer boredom by enrolling in an autobiography class together with her mother. Her boredom quickly ends when the class harridan is poisoned and dies.

The book is not a serious mystery, and the plot holes are occasionally large, but they're also easy to forgive because of the endearing characters and the author's ability to find the humor in every day small town life.

Jane Jeffry's mother Cecily is in town on a visit and she and Jane sign up for a writing class at the local community center. Cecily has traveled all over the world and thinks the class on writing autobiographies is a good way of preserving her memories. Jane and her friend Shelley Nowack are taking the class to keep Cecily company, but Jane soon discovers she may have a talent for writing. Jane's enjoying the class, although she wishes the obnoxious Agnes Pryce hadn't signed up as well. Jane's not the only one who doesn't like Mrs. Pryce and when she demands that the entire class attend a pot luck dinner at her house, someone takes the opportunity to poison Mrs. Pryce's quiche during that dinner. Even though the police, including Jane's friend Detective Mel Van Dyne, are investigating the murder, Jane does a little snooping of her own, since someone used the quiche that Jane made to poison Mrs. Pryce. When someone starts leaving Jane a series of clues, she realizes who the murderer is and that the truth isn't always easy to handle.

"A Quiche Before Dying" is another delightful entry in Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffry cozy mystery series. In this, the third book in the series, Jane is really developing as a character, as she is leaving the memory of her late husband behind and coming into her own as a person. The little tidbits about the writing class and Jane's discovery that she may have the talent to be a writer are a fascinating glimpse into the world of writing. Two of Jane's children, Mike and Todd, are away for most of the book, but Jane's interactions with her daughter Katie add to the realism in the book. And it was nice to meet Jane's mother Cecily, who added yet another dimension to Jane's character. I also loved the way the romance between Jane and Mel is developing. Jane's writing classmates and teacher are all well written and great suspects: teacher Missy who writes romance novels; the affable Grady Wells; sisters Ruth Rogers and Naomi Smith; the offbeat Desiree Loftus; and ex-military man Bob Neufield. The mystery elements are well written and well plotted and with so many suspects readers will have fun trying to figure out who the killer is. Churchill has a tendency for Agatha Christie like scenes in her books when the murderer is revealed, which can be a bit unbelievable, but in this case it does add some poignancy to the end of this book.

"A Quiche Before Dying" is a nicely done cozy mystery.

I picked this bok up at a sale one day. I read it and loved it so much. it's very exciting and interesting. it has a lot of events that suprise and amuse you. it makes you smile and laugh out loud. You should buy it. Wonderful.

On the back flap of my copy of this paperback is a quote from Mysteries By Mail:

"Jane Jeffry is a cross between Miss Marple and Erma Bombeck."

That comment toots-the-bugle on target, and the 1993 copyright date sets the receding edge of the Bombeck boom, a blip in the Quiche resurrection, and the finality of my age at 57-years-and-slipping ... cuz I fondly recall all of this too clearly, and with more than a few happy chuckles and taste bud awakenings:

-- Generous segments of hot Swiss cheese oozing within egg custard set warmly into a fresh & flaky, crisp pie-crust-shell ... Oh, yeah!

-- Macho bacon chunks holding tangy barriers between melted, creamy goo, and souffle-ed to a steaming, lightly bouncy, moist egg fluff ... Uh huh.

-- Soft hints of nutmeg nearly overcome with glee by freshly sauteed, almost crunchy, slithery garlic and green onion pieces ... Ho, ho, ho.

Tim Taylor lives!

(And is dated with fond memory, in the kitchen, by the oven, within the ambiance of this review of a culinary cozy, thank you Lord!)

Ahem. Excuse the slips through drooling saliva.

Returning to the above quote from M by M...

Miss Marple is another story (beyond and before Erma). Rather than nicely seating an age-flavor as Bombeck has done so well, Christie's Marple is ageless and forever famous ...

... except to a young editor at Penguin who rejected a ms because the protagonist, at 55-years, was too old to appeal to mystery readers. Huh? Penguin, I love your Tuxedo, and that ms deserves a second chance to dance!!

Pretend I didn't slither in that last paragraph.

If you want to read something timeless and ageless, though, something which exemplifies the best of many crossover worlds bleeding into each other in a classic mystery scene taking the suburban housewife into her own where she'll never be underestimated or overwhelmed again ...

If you want to be impressed with how stark-salient-simplicity, and routine-real-life might be successfully lived and easily prioritized, on an easy fly, within the-gracious-hostess-role played with panache ...

If you want all that and more, read (and reread) the Last Chapter of A QUICHE BEFORE DYING.

I'll quote a few passages and comment upon the depth and complexity which can be easily missed do to the smooth ride of the jazzy rhythm and snappy-blues of Jill Churchill's voice.

Not to worry, though, I won't give away even a hint of any part of the plot or denouement which needs to be kept under raps for the mystery threads to remain intact, to be unraveled only as you read this book from page one to the end, which I recommend "to no end."

Chapter 21 begins:

>> "Mom!" Katie called from the living room. Mike and Todd are being repulsive again! They're such dweebs!"

>> "It's their nature," Jane called back from the dining room table. (Note that Jane doesn't leap up, zip upstairs and micro-manage, like those fictional super Mom's we know too well, in response to this whine & conflict; nor does Jane's heart surge into a cholesterol calling frenzy. She's cool. And wise to no end.)

>> "I'll help you clear this up," Thelma said, surveying the dirty dishes and general wreckage of Sunday dinner littering the table.

>> "No hurry, Thelma. More coffee, Uncle Jim? Mel? Mom? (See Jane easily side-step Thelma's push to put process before people, to clear the clutter rather than leisurely running the course on calls to hostess.)

>> Shelly came into the room. "I've got my gang off to the pool. May I invite myself to dessert?" She sat down at Kate's abandoned place and helped herself to a microscopically thin wedge of strawberry pie. <<

Those few words expose volumes in such a free-flowing syntax, it's easy to notice only subliminally that Churchill is dramatizing Jane's wise-and-easy style of Mom-ship; her casual expression of understated, gracious hostess-ing; her deft diversion of the Mom-in-law maneuvers. Jane accomplishes all this without missing a cue (or clue), without controlling, micro-managing, or bashing budding brains; she steps and sidesteps with grace, on-the-fly.

Did you SEE that?? See Jane? See Jane run?

That last chapter deserves to be reread with a certain amount of regularity, each time I want to be reminded of what a murder mystery was meant to do. Jane not only accomplishes all the above, she regularly gives a hell-of-a-good answer to life's habitual conundrums. And, if I read between the lines with enough care, after-thought, second and third thoughts, I see the subtle wisdom there which is so cashed in nuance to have caused The Suburban Housewife, Jane Jeffry, and Jill Churchill to be underestimated with the "under" so LOW as to have been buried.

On that note I'll wind down with advice to myself:

Remember the phrase, "... coming down with." It can be seen as (only one of many) a subtly repeated clue to the Churchill/Jeffry mystique.

Remember and wonder, Linda:

"Why Jane, (of all people)?"

Why Jane?

"Who is John Galt?" (From ATLAS SHRUGGED -- Ayn Rand)

This series deserves to be reproduced in an elevated version of a new and complete hardback collection (along with the one I've bugled that Joanne Pence deserves, along with the one Joanne Fluke has been deservedly given) ... with this review as a preface!

Oh my. I'm flying high this morning.

But, trust me when I say that I mean (more than I can say) every word of praise to Jill. Though, I honestly doubt that this review is that good!

Illusions of Grandeur I sometimes have; I admit it. But I usually know depth, complexity, and subtle wisdom when I read it. And, I know what makes a good mystery, though I'd like to allow many types of these.

Speaking of which, the convoluted coming to light of the culprit, motive, criminal and moral resolution of this one is as a true mystery lover would appreciate:

The whole shebang is intriguingly unusual and nudges the reader to contemplate, maybe even connect his logic-tight-compartments (as psychologists termed in the 70's those parts of the brain which refuse to acknowledge each other, on the grounds that awareness might incriminate).

Yours In the Game, though I'm not "Fair Game,"
Linda G. Shelnutt

Jane enrolls in a writing course only to find out the local obnoxious busy-body is also taking the course! The woman was truly outrageous with her tactless comments to her fellow classmates, so it's no wonder she was poisoned during a potluck dinner! As disagreeable as the old biddy was, Jane finds herself attempting to determine "who done it". I'd have given five stars if the old biddy had been less nasty and I wasn't so appalled at her character bashing of the fellow students.

I must be missing something because this author's books get 5 stars. However, I felt the characters were never fully developed, that they lacked depth. Also some of the events seemed forced. I couldn't accept that they really would have happened so I was unable to be drawn into the story. An example of this is Mrs. Pryce inviting her classmates to her home for dinner. The book didn't so much bore as disappoint because the elements of a good mystery were there and the characters had the potential of growing on you. I'd consider this a light weight mystery. Unlike an Elizabeth George or even a Faye Kellerman mystery that pulls you into the story and keeps you thinking about it long after it's finished and whose characters you hate to say goodbye to.