Suture Self: A Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery (Bed-And-Breakfast Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Mary Daheim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2001 | Series: Bed-And-Breakfast Mysteries

National bestselling author, the incomparable Mary Daheim, makes her long-awaited hardcover debut with a cozy mystery nonpareil. Plucky bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn and her acerbic cousin Renie are examining Big Bad Medicine, So hang on to your gurney...and check your vital signs at the door!

Judith McMonigle Flynn is despondent as the winter blahs set in with a vengeance. A bum hip has forced her to shut down Hillside Manor temporarily and limp off to Good Cheer Hospital for a much needed operation. It's the very same "haven of healing" where a famous actress recently kicked the bucket after routine foot surgery, and where an ace baseball pitcher in for an elbow operation was tossed out of the game...permanently. Judith is certain that her scheduled date with a scalpel has placed her at the top of the Grim Reaper's "hip list." At least she's not alone. Cousin Renie is checking in -- though hopefully not checking out -- at the same time to have a shoulder surgically corrected, but that's small consolation at best.

Good Cheer, it seems, is anything but. With one look at the medieval wreck of a place administered by a doddering collection of clergy, Judith is convinced that she and Renie will be lucky if they're rolled out of the OR alive. But they are -- though the same good fortune does not extend to an ex-pro football quarterback, who is sacked by fatal knee surgery, the third improbable, high-profile demise in less than a month.

Since they are stuck in this chamber of Hippocratic horrors for a while, Judith feels it's hers and Renie's duty to get to the bottom of the Good Cheer carnage. What they discover is that the list of potential Angels of Death is quite extensive indeed, incorporating not-so-well-wishing relations, potentially homicidal hospital volunteers, deadly docs...even the puffed up, corporate-ladder-climbing chief of staff himself. But as the mortality rate rises -- along with Judith's blood pressure -- the worst diagnosis of all is the one that suggests the cousins' curiosity is terminal...and that the killer is saving the last, lethal dose of medicine for them.

From Just Desserts to A Streetcar Named Expire to this, her latest, most wildly successful operation, Mary Daheim's delightfully zany Bed-and-Breakfast mysteries are just what the doctor ordered.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Judith McMonigle Flynn, the proprietress of Hillside Manor, a bed and breakfast located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, ranges further afield than previously in Suture Self, the first hardcover mystery in Daheim's series. Wheeled away from her innkeeping duties and rolled into Good Cheer Hospital for a much-needed hip replacement, Judith brings her own hospital roomie: her trash-talking cousin Renie, who's checked into Good Cheer with Judith for a little orthopedic surgery of her own. Renie, who makes doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators want to take back their Hippocratic oaths and run for the hills, is a bitchy, whiny, sarcastic candidate for the most obnoxious patient of the year.

While Renie terrorizes the good sisters who run Good Cheer, Judith worries that the unlikely run of bad luck that's turned up the toes of a baseball star and an actress (both of whom checked into the hospital for minor surgery and checked out in body bags) will follow her into the operating room too. And when a third death occurs just as Judith and Renie are beginning their post-op convalescence, the cousins get their sleuthing act together and try to figure out what the killer's victims have in common and why they met their ends in a place devoted to the healing arts. Of course, that places the temporarily disabled ladies squarely in the sights of the murderer, whose identity is clear almost from the start to everyone except our gals. This isn't Daheim's strongest book; Creeps Suzette, Just Desserts, and Fowl Prey are better reads. But her many fans won't mind the slow pace and somewhat plodding unraveling of the plot, especially if they've ever had a bad hospital experience. There are people who love B & Bs and delight in near-bloodless mysteries. If you're looking for a get-well present for one of them, Suture Self might be it. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Not quite up to Daheim's usual standards, the 17th in the author's Bed-and-Breakfast series (A Streetcar Named Expire; Creeps Suzette; etc.) finds amateur gumshoe Judith McMonigle Flynn sleuthing from her hospital bed, where she is recovering from hip surgery. Before entering the Good Cheer Hospital with her peppery cousin, Renie Jones, who is due to have surgery at the same time, the two women become very apprehensive on hearing of the mysterious deaths of two patients. When the man in the next room becomes the third victim, Judith and Renie begin to investigate. Life as patients grows even more complicated for the duo when a blizzard brings the town to a standstill; Judith hears that her b&b is crowded with stranded tourists and an escaped boa constrictor; strange packages arrive at her house; her private detective husband, Joe, accepts a dangerous case; her son Mike makes a request that causes much soul-searching; and the Good Cheer Hospital is threatened by a takeover. In spite of all this confusion, Judith discovers the identity of the murderer--but the revelation is no surprise to the reader. Even though loyal Daheim fans will relish the witty and revealing interactions between familiar characters, the final denouement of a complex murder scenario and the multitude of subplots depicted here are as tedious and wearing as the healing process after surgery. Agent, Maureen Moran. (Feb. 13)Forecast: A series that's run as long as this one isn't going to be hurt by one flat outing, but this entry won't win Daheim many new fans; nor will the book's cover--its depiction of someone in surgeon's clothing stitching a baseball seems likely to elicit shrugs from browsers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (February 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380978660
• ISBN-13: 978-0380978663
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,218,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Give this one a pass..., January 27, 2002

By 

Judith Lindenau "dulcie22" (Traverse City, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suture Self (Bed-And-Breakfast Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I always get excited when I seem Mary Daheim's name as the author of a new bed-and-breakfast mystery...or at least I always USED to get excited. "Suture Self" takes place in a hospital--the ultimate bed and breakfast--and is as cutsey and improbable as its title implies. The largest problem is the location, as you might guess: it's difficult to have three murders on your floor, have the various characters wander in your room and confess, and observe the hit and run from your hospital window. It just doesn't work. And the humor that Daheim usually exhibits doesn't work either: it's strained and artificial, filled with weak puns and plays on words.

I'm saddened to see Daheim turn out such a weak product: this is a formulaic novel based on her past work but, unlike the hospital in which it is set, the novel is sterile and lacking in credibility and color.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Probably the weakest...., June 26, 2002

By 

Louis M. Perdue (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suture Self (Bed-And-Breakfast Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read both series written by Mary Daheim and I have to say, right away, that I prefer the Alpine Mysteries to this series, Bed-and-Breakfast. This series tends toward too much silliness at times and there also tends to be too many deaths in each one (Snow Place to Die, for example, was right up there on par with a slasher movie). As well, some of the guests in this series lean toward stereotypical cartoons rather than characters. That being said, this book falls right in line with the others of the series, perhaps a little worse than most of the previous ones. Both Judith and her cousin Renie are in the hospital for operations when a murder occurs, following two suspicious deaths having already taken place. The mystery in this one is fairly easy to solve and the pacing is slow - it would take a really strong writer to make a full-length novel that takes place almost entirely in one hospital room seem exciting. I found myself more interested in the personal progress of Judith's life - will Mike finally find out that Joe is his father, not Dan? How is Gertrude's progress into senility?
I rate this one 2 stars as it is less than average for this series. Have to say that I am more looking forward to the next Alpine mystery much more than the the next one in this series, "Silver Scream."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Her Best, May 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Suture Self (Bed-And-Breakfast Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This series is starting to lose its charm.

Renie, who I usually find mildly amusing, comes off as totally overbearing and obnoxious, to the point you hope the nurses will just smother her with a pillow. Judith, who I usually find enjoyable but stuffy, comes off as totally dippy. Gertrude, who's usually the highlight of the series for me, is barely seen.

People wander into the cousins' hospital room to spill their guts. Bill breaks his professional ethics as a psychologist to tell them confidential patient information "to get their minds off Joe." Though the hospital staff doesn't seem to like them very much, particularly Renie, they still give them whatever information they're seeking. The whole thing is just totally unrealistic, in addition to the fact that a story which takes place in the confines of a hospital comes off as stifling.

Maybe it's time for this author to choose between this and her "Alpine" series and devote her full time to one or the other, where she can put more effort into the stories.