Simon Said [Hardcover]

Sarah R. Shaber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

When Professor Simon Shaw begins investigating the murder of a woman who turns out to be the long missing heiress to the Bloodsworth estate, he finds himself trying to finds answers to a case that is more than seventy years old and that someone wants to keep unsolved.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Murder most archeological. While searching for artifacts in the aptly named Bloodworth House, Professor Simon Shaw--young, gifted, and Pulitzered--comes upon a less-than-colonial corpse. Could she be the long-missing heroine Anne Bloodworth and can Professor Shaw sort things out and give his students their money's worth? Fans of gentle mystery and Southern civility should opt for Simon Said.

From Library Journal

Simon Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at a small, private college in Raleigh, assists police in identifying a body discovered behind an historic house on campus. Although the victim, a young heiress, died in 1926, Shaw feels compelled to find out who killed her. His quest, plus the attentions of a police lawyer interested in the case, pull him out of a depression caused by his recent divorce and departmental politics?but then someone tries to kill him. Although the prose is a bit cut and dried, the Raleigh setting and historic elements should please most readers.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312152078
• ISBN-13: 978-0312152079
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #743,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Great Start., July 24, 2000

By 

Michael Butts "as i see it" (Martinsburg, WV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Simon Said (Simon Shaw Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Very fun book, I read it in one day, couldn't put it down. Wonderful characters, I loved Simon, very real and human character. The supporting cast is also a lot of fun. Different characters in different jobs. Ms. Sharber really makes you root for Simon's love interest, Julia. I hope that we see a lot more of her in the next books. Ms. Sharber does a good job of hiding the villians and had me guessing up to the end. She has a great way of running two mysteries at once. One past and one present, then pulling them together very well. Can't wait to read her next book, Snipe Hunt. I only hope that Ms. Sharber starts at least writing one a year. One every three years will just not do!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, January 20, 2012

By 

Kribu (Estonia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Simon Said (The Professor Simon Shaw Murder Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)

This is one of those cases where I wish one could give half star ratings on Amazon, because it's more a 2.5 than a 3 star book for me. Still, I suppose "it's OK" is closer to what I felt about it than "I didn't like it", so three stars it is.

I should say that I'm almost tempted to take away a star for the awful Kindle formatting: the formatting issues constantly pulled me out of the story, especially due to the way paragraphs and scenes kept running together without any breaks. There were also many numbers obviously missing from the text, especially in several instances when it was clear the sentence was supposed to end with a date (year) but instead ended with a space followed by a full stop. Next to these issues, the frequent lack of new paragraph indents and an active table of contents (or even the way new chapters always started in the middle of a page of text) were minor problems.

But even without the formatting issues, it wouldn't have made my favourite mysteries list. For the first 20-25% of the book, I wasn't sure whether I would manage to finish it at all - the pacing was all wrong, disjointed and rushed and full of completely irrelevant descriptions and mini-infodumps whenever a new character was introduced. I found the writing did improve a little towards the ending (either that or I got more used to it), but not a lot.

That said, the plot itself intrigued me enough that I kept reading, simply because I wanted to know "who did it" (for both the historical murder and the contemporary goings-on). I didn't warm to Simon, but he did have his good points (such as his affection for his cat), and some of the supporting cast, while somewhat one- or two-dimensional, showed promise. Not enough for me to read more in this series, but enough for me to give it a "it was OK" rating and not regret the time spent on it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, fast and full of history, April 13, 2011

By 

Annie B (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Simon Said (The Professor Simon Shaw Murder Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)

I was thrilled to learn that Shaber had released this series on Kindle. As soon as I heard the news, I bought this book and read it in one day.

I am a NC native and found this book very true to place and the characters charming and Southern without being stereotypical. I loved the history in the book and I loved Simon and his cronies. The mystery is light and fun and far better than I expected.

If you're looking for a fun cozy mystery, rich in history that doesn't read like a textbook, you will love this book. Hard-boiled fans and thriller readers probably won't like Simon Said, but cozy lovers who enjoy cozy mysteries with an academic and historical slant will love it. This is the perfect book for the beach or a lazy Sunday afternoon. I highly recommend it!