Skeleton Key [Paperback]

Orania as Haddam, Jane Papazoglou (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St. Martin's (2000)
• ASIN: B000Q56SNC
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

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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.