Sugarplum Dead (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 12) [Hardcover]

Carolyn Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2000

Carolyn Hart's Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Award-winning mystery series, Death on Demand, has long been a readers' favorite, with its richly evoked Southern atmosphere, ticklish wit, wildly eccentric characters, perplexing puzzles, and the most endearing pair of married sleuths since Nick and Nora Charles. Now the investigative efforts of Annie and Max Darling soar to a breathtaking new level, with a delightfully unexpected whodunit that's as sumptuous as a holiday dessert.

Sugarplum Dead

It's getting to look a lot like Christmas on the sea island of Broward's Rock, South Carolina. At the popular Death on Demand mystery bookstore, owner Annie Darling's energetic Yuletide preparations have to be put on hold thanks to several rather inconvenient distractions--including a slew of family woes ... and murder.

Annie's mother-in-law Laurel -- not normally the straightest of arrows anyway -- has taken to chatting up ghosts in the local graveyard. Across the island in a spacious, spooky mansion, ancient onetime movie star Marguerite Dumaney Ladson has called together all her living kin and their multitude of exes for her gala combination Xmas/birthday bash. Among the honored guests are two that Annie could well do without: her errant father, whom she hasn't seen in twenty five years, and Dr. Emory Swanson, Laurel's guide down "The Golden Path."

Like Laurel, wealthy old Rita Dumaney Ladson has fallen for Swanson's new-age-pseudo-occult gobbledygook. The question is: how are the gathered relatives going to react to the grande dame's announcement that she's leaving her fortune to the charismatic charlatan's Evermore Foundation? Not well, apparently, since a murder follows right on the heels of Rita's shocking revelation. And the finger of suspicion seems to be pointing straight at Annie Darling's recently arrived deadbeat dad.

Annie can feel no loyalty toward the father she's never really known, but she doesn't believe for a minute he's guilty. And when a second murder puts her conflicted emotions into an even more chaotic tailspin, Annie realizes that she will need all the help her easy-going PI. husband Max can offer to solve a related pair of homicides. Because, in this season of giving, fate is giving her more major headaches -- and a killer is giving her more corpses -- than even the normally unflappable Annie Darling may be able to handle.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this 12th Death on Demand adventure, Anthony and Agatha award-winner Hart uses a couple of reliable mystery devices to serve up a story as entertaining as any in this deservedly popular series. The first of these is the perennial fake psychic, here handsome charmer Emory Swanson, who comes to Broward's Rock Island to establish the Evermore Foundation, where individualsDparticularly rich, older womenDcan get in touch with their dearly departed. One of Swanson's unsuspecting devot es is retired movie star Marguerite Dumaney. She's still glamorous, still imperious, and ready to sign over her fortune to the foundation, though her many needy relatives have other ideas for her money. While any of them might be desperate enough to kill Marguerite, it's Happy, her aptly named sister, who is murdered. Annie Darling, proprietor of the Death on Demand Mystery Book Store, enters the picture when her long-absent father, who turns out to be Happy's ex-husband, appears. Annie, ably assisted by husband Max, has to clear her father and stepsister of suspicion, while she simultaneously searches for the real culprit. The evidence surrounding a second murder points to the man they all love to hate: Swanson. Or is he too obvious? Another classic story twist resolves matters in a fully satisfying finale. Hart, who's also the author of the Henrie O series (Death in Paradise, etc.), knits a tidy plot, though the cute descriptions of Max and Annie's cat, Agatha, may be too cloying for some. The insider view of the mystery bookstore world remains a special draw. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The catalytic agent in Hart's latest series addition (White Elephant Dead) is "Pudge" Laurence, the long-lost father of bookstore-owner and village sleuth Annie Laurence Darling. At the behest of a famous actress, Pudge is visiting Broward's Island, SC, where a financially slippery purveyor of crystals and otherworldly contacts creates problems for both families; the actress and Annie's mother-in-law seem enamored of his ways. Annie must tread a fine line, then: she tries to help her mother-in-law while circumventing her unwanted father. An charismatic characterization, the familiar island, and an excellent plot that is nicely knit together make this an essential purchase.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (October 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380977729
• ISBN-13: 978-0380977727
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,746,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Hart talks about mysteries and writing in a new interview on Oklahoma public tv. Please visit www.CarolynHart.com and click on the link in the upper right hand column.

In April Berkley Prime Crime will publish DEATH COMES SILENTLY, the 22nd Death on Demand title. Coming in October is WHAT THE CAT SAW, a novel of suspense.

Carolyn writes the Death on Demand series set in a mystery bookstore on a South Carolina sea island and the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series featuring a lively redheaded ghost.

Carolyn is also the author of several WWII novels, including ESCAPE FROM PARIS which is now available for the first time in its complete uncut version. Escape from Paris is the story of two sisters who defy the Gestapo to help British fliers avoid capture.

In Ghost at Work, Bailey Ruth returns to earth to help someone in trouble. She moves a body, investigates a murder, saves a marriage, prevents a suicide, and--in a fiery finale--rescues a child who knows too much. In Merry, Merry Ghost, Bailey Ruth protects a little boy from danger. In Ghost in Trouble, Bailey Ruth tries to corral a wilful woman determined to play hunt-the-killer. Coming in 2013 is HIJACKED GHOST which puts Bailey Ruth at risk of ever returning to Heaven.

Letter from Home, a WWII novel set on the home front, received the Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2003. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. Thirteen-year-old Gretchen Gilman is working for the small-town newspaper during the hot summer of 1944. Murder occurs on the street where she lives, forever changing her life and the lives of those involved.

Hart was one of 10 mystery authors featured at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC, in 2003 for Letter from Home and again in 2007 for Set Sail for Murder, 7th in the Henrie O series. In Set Sail for Murder (new in paperback March 2008), Henrie O joins a troubled family on a Baltic cruise and death is an unwelcome passenger.

Hart has been nominated 9 times for the Agatha Award for Best Novel and has won 3 times. In 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic. She will be the International Guest of Honor at Bloody Words in Toronto on June 6-8, 2008.

Hart is a native of Oklahoma City, a journalism graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and a former president of Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and American Crime Writers League.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light, enjoyable mystery, January 13, 2001

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sugarplum Dead (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 12) (Hardcover)

Just when you thought mysteries were becoming dark novels filled with anti-heros comes a book like SUGARPLUM DEAD. Annie Darling discovers a long-lost father and step-sister just as her mother-in-law has wigged out on trying to contact the dead. Annie, along with her husband Max, has got to find a way to bring things together. Max faces the added challenge of getting Annie to even talk to her father (after all, he did abandon her years before).

Annie's new family includes a famous ex-movie star who is also talking to the dead and threatening to give away the family fortune to a spiritual medium. If looks could kill, Marguueritte Dumaney would lie dead and before long, murder strikes. Both Annie's father and sister are suspects and Annie has to spring into action to solve the crime and protect her new family.

Although the mystery itself is not especially complex or difficult to guess, Carolyn Hart has created a finely crafted story. Max, Annie, and Laurel (Max's mother) are fully developed characters that you'll end up rooting for. Definitely an enjoyable read...

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This mystery a tough nut to crack, March 18, 2001

By 

algerina "algerina" (Saint Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sugarplum Dead (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 12) (Hardcover)

Christmas takes a backseat to a house full of new and strange relatives. When Ann Darling meets the father that abandoned her and her mother, she refuses to have anything to do with him. But once he is accused of murder she must decide if she can leave the past behind and help him. Meanwhile Max's mother has finally gone around the bend. She is having conversations with the dead in an effort to reach one of her dead husbands. Add to this confusion, a house designed by a mad movie director,a family right out of central casting, and a murder or two and you have a perfect holiday treat. Max as always does the research and sets the trap.

The book is filled with wonderful references to Christmas mysteries as always I have added more titles to my reading list, a bonus that Carolyn Hart provides in each book.

As a cat owner I loved the trials and tribulations of hanging Christmas decoration with feline help.

I recommend this addition to the series to all Death on Demand fans and new comers as well.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A darling mystery, November 12, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: Sugarplum Dead (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 12) (Hardcover)

Margaret Ladson looks forward to the upcoming Christmas holidays inviting all her relatives to spend the Yuletide with her at her mansion on a South Carolina barrier island. On Broward's Rock, Margaret lives with her assistant who was once her double when the former was a movie star, her sister Happy, and her teenage niece Rachel as well as assorted other step-relatives and servants. All the Ladson extended family members are coming to Broward's Rock in hope of finagling some cash out of Margaret.

During her birthday party, Margaret announces that she will leave her fortune to con artist Emory Swanson of the Evermore Foundation for enabling her to talk with her deceased husband. This angers and shocks her relatives. The next day, someone murders Happy with the evidence pointing towards Pudge Lawrance. He is Annie Darling's estranged father who left his daughter and wife years ago. Annie and her spouse Max begin sleuthing, as they believe Pudge and the alternate suspect Rachel are innocent.

A DEATH ON DEMAND mystery is always a treat because the plots tend to show the forgiving side of humanity as well as the deadlier perspective. This time the heroine and her father reconcile enabling Annie to find some inner peace. Annie also embraces her stepsister for the first time. However, do not think this is a relationship drama only. The entertaining who-done-it is loaded with suspects on an exotic locale as the amateur detective duo searches for the truth. With a well designed mystery augmented by a family drama and a great teen character, SUGAR PLUM DEAD highlights Carolyn Hart at her delightful best.

Harriet Klausner