Skeleton Key [Hardcover]

Jane Haddam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2000

When writer and ex-deb Bennis Hannaford discovers the body of super-heiress Kayla Anson in the family garage, her visit to Litchfield County, Connecticut, is reluctantly extended. Bennis's hostess, Margaret Anson, presents an icy version of the grieving mother, cut out her late husband's will--until now. And when Gregor Demarkian, ex-FBI man and Bennis's lover, arrives from Philadelphia to consult with local police, a media blitz storms in as more suspects crawl out of the woods. Kayla may have been too blindingly rich for her wild, private school chum; her older, socially ambitious entrepreneur boyfriend; and a divorced, downsized bookeeper selling her furniture to survive. As Gregor maps out distances, location, and motives, Halloween descends on the dark, silent hills. From a skeleton sprawled on the cemetery caretakers' porch to more deadly mischief and mayhem, the countryside is brimming with secrets. And a killer is about to strike again...

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Haddam's 15th entry in her entertaining Gregor Demarkian series (Deadly Beloved, etc.), Bennis Hannaford discovers the murdered body of debutante heiress Kayla Anson during a Halloween visit to the Anson estate in a posh area of Connecticut. Bennis summons her lover, Gregor, retired head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, from Philadelphia to help the local police. These logistics out of the way, Haddam settles into another clever plot-driven village cozy. Two more people are murdered: publicity-hungry Zara Anne Moss, who said she saw the killer, and Margaret Anson, Kayla's vengeful, money-hungry mother. Gregor studies area maps and interviews locals to separate clues from elaborate red herrings: a telephone pole knocked over, a stolen Jeep smashed in the Fairchild Family Cemetery and a skeleton from a nearby museum left on the caretakers' porch. Haddam excels at showing the chilling gulf between the arrogant wealthy and the climbers desperate to join them. One of her most complex characters is penniless divorc?e Sally Martindale. Humiliated by her bookkeeping job at the exclusive Swamp Tree Country Club, Sally embezzles from members' accounts, foolishly hoping that a gambling win will restore her status among club members. In an anomalous subplot, Bennis is stricken with pneumonia and Gregor insists that she stop smoking. Haddam's well-meaning message about the perils of tobacco seems shoehorned into an otherwise smoothly running mystery marked by lively characters, good descriptions and enough misdirection to keep a reader's interest high. (Feb.) FYI: Jane Haddam is the pseudonym of Oriana Papazoglou.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Connecticut police consult series sleuth and ex-FBI agent Gregor Demarkian when Bennis Hannaford (Demarkian's love interest) discovers the body of Kayla Anson, a beautiful young heiress. Demarkian closely analyzes clues, reconstructs Kayla's last days, looks for her motives in those who knew her, and still worries about Hannaford's persistent racking cough. As usual, Haddam spends a lot of time developing complex secondary characters: Kayla's uptight, unfeeling mother; her promiscuous, wayward cousin; a recently unemployed, unhusbanded embezzler; and Kayla's older, off-and-on boyfriend. Demarkian closes in, but not before more victims appear. A sophisticated style, excellent delivery, and riveting plot make this an excellent choice for all collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (February 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312209096
• ISBN-13: 978-0312209094
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,685,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A winner!, January 26, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skeleton Key (Hardcover)

In the wealthiest section of affluent Litchfield County, Connecticut lives Kayla Anson, a debutante now worth billions with the recent death of her father. Visiting the posh Anson estate is Bennis Hannaford, who plans to stay only one night. When Bennis goes outside to smoke a cigarette, she notices the BMW in the garage seems to contain a person. Reluctantly, she looks inside only to find the dead body of Kayla.

Bennis asks her lover Gregor Demarkian to come up from Philadelphia to help the local police with the investigation. Already having trouble sleeping without his beloved Bennis near him, the former head of the FBI's Behavioral Science unit quickly heads to Connecticut. Two more deaths occur, including that of Kayla's arrogant, blue-blooded mother. Meanwhile, Gregor conducts his own investigation in an effort to determine the clues that belong to case, and those that the culprit has added to fool the police, before someone else dies.

Though SKELETON KEY starts a bit slow, once Gregor reaches the estates of the self-professed elite of Connecticut, the novel moves rapidly forward. The story line is an entertaining cozy highlighted by delightful characters. In his fifteenth appearance, Demarkian remarkably retains a vigor that allows Jane Haddam to even preach against the hazards of tobacco without slowing down a plot that will please her readers.

Harriet Klausner

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skeleton Key worth the wait!, February 27, 2000

By 

Vicki Ball - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skeleton Key (Hardcover)

I have been a fan of Gregor Demarkian since I first picked up one of Jane Haddam's books, and this is my all time, absolute favorite ~ number 15 in a series of delightful, classic mysteries that include the Armenian-American neighbors in Philadelphia.

I have come to know and love all of Gregor's neighbors, ache for him in his relationship with Bennis, laugh at his confusion, and delight their discovery of each other, although I think Bennis WAS the one in charge here. Perhaps no more.

I can also delight in being totally wrong about "who-done-it", because I never get it right, and Ms. Haddam's solutions are always better! Most of the series actually takes place away from Cavanaugh Street, and this trip is out into the wilds of Litchfield County, Connecticut. Roads with no names to frustrate poor Gregor. A killer on the loose. And with all the clues in front of me, I was STILL wrong again.

I devoured this book, having waited so long for it, and now that I've finished it once, I'm going to sit down with it again - it's too good NOT to read twice!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars She's writing with one hand tied behind her back, November 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Skeleton Key (Hardcover)

I've always thought Jane Haddam was one of the best mystery series writers, and have been impressed with how she has kept the quality high through so many installments.

In this one, though, she seeems to be trying to write a novel for which her series is not the appropriate vessel. As a result, it's one of her least successful outings.

On a bright note, her social satire on the inhabitants of Lichfield County, CT, is among her best and most pungent.

On the down side, the mystery (as another reader has pointed out) is pretty obvious, and her red herrings seem half hearted.

The real problem is that she wants to turn Gregor and Bennis into tragic star-crossed lovers or, alternatively, into poster children for the American Lung Association. The problem is that she cannot transcend how she has used those characters in the past.

As much as I have enjoyed reading about Gregor and Bennis, they remain two-and-a-quarter dimensional props to carry the mystery plot along. They can't bear the additional emotional weight she wants to pile on them here. It's like watching a semi-talented college theatrical troupe try to put on King Lear.

I suspect that Haddam probably could write a well-rounded novel about the sorts of people and issues she was dealing with here. (Every one of her novels proves that she can populate a fictional community with interesting and varigated character types.) But the Gregor Demarkian novels inhibit her amibitions. She can't be Ruth Rendell (let alone Anita Brookner ) while trying to continue to be Jill Churchill at the same time.