Customer Reviews

The Thanksgiving Day Murder (Christine Bennett Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Very well written who-dunit about a disappearance investigated by a non-typical investigator. Fast paced, personable, non-complex, very good characterizations. Have read 2 other books by this author and intend to read all of them!!

This was a pleasant read. I like Christine Bennett and her husband. I liked Sandy Gordon, the man who wanted to know what happened when his wife, Natalie, disappeared at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a year ago.

My biggest complaint was with the title. In the beginning of the book, it's not supposed to be clear whether Sandy Gordon's wife ran away, was kidnapped, or was killed. However, the title The Thanksgiving Day Murder, made me aware that Natalie was dead.

Overall this is a good story that's easy to read.

Okay, I couldn't resist the lame pun, but it IS a true statement. Lee Harris writes tightly plotted, well planned mysteries.

This time, former nun turned cleaver, super sleuth, Christine Bennett meets a distraught husband who has an incredible story to relate. Nearly one year ago Sandy Gordon and his lovely redheaded second wife Natalie attend the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. Both in a happy, festive mood and looking forward to an upcoming romantic cruise vacation, Natalie impulsively rushes off down a side street to purchase balloons from a street vendor and completely disappears without a trace. Sandy swears, first to the skeptical police and, even almost a year later, to Chris that there was absolutely no reason for her to leave. That they were madly in love and happy to be together -- looking forward to life and maybe even to starting a family. Sandy begs Christine to help him find out what happened to Natalie even though the police have backed off and a private detective that he had hired some months earlier had been unable to come up with any new leads.

It is a puzzle that Chris just has to try her hand at. And it eventually begins to unravel on thread at a time.

Ms. Harris is masterful at these intricate plots. She manages to keep me guessing nearly every time by zig-zagging and using a few well placed red herrings. As usual, Chris Bennett and her husband, Jack, are so likable. I really enjoy the cozy little details about their lives that get woven into the story. It keeps her from seeming like robo-sleuth as she cuts through the mystery and gets to the truth. A diverting side plot also gives us an interesting view of Chris' family.

It's a great, fast paced read.

I've been reading these books in the series in order, and this is the best so far!! Lee Harris has done an admirable job weaving the clues, suspicions, and "red herrings" for not just one mystery but two in this 6th entry of the Christine Bennett series. Natalie Gordon disappeared over a year ago at a Thanksgiving Day parade, and her husband is desperate to find the love of his life. While investigating this mystery, flashes of memories come back to Christine to a life before her parents died, and they raise suspicions that the father she dearly loved was not was he seemed. Couldn't put this one down, and can't wait to get to the next!! Enjoy!

Dont' read this unless you want a plot disclosure at the end, that may make the book not as "enjoyable" (?) reading for you.

I have read just about all the Lee Harris nee Christine Bennett mysteries, and most of them are very well written and the characters and plots excellent, but at the same time leave the reader with a sad feeling. This book by far is the worst. The plot starts out as usual with Christine looking into the sudden disapearance of a woman, the story told to her on Thanksgiving Day. Yes, the plot is good until about 70% of the book, but the inclusion of a melodramatic former police officer living in a shack that she has do a model makeup from pictures, who she then finds in a car, dieing from a heart attack, is just too much melodrama for me. I especially did not like the discription at the beginning of the book which makes the woman who disapeared seem to be a beautiful woman and a man's dream for a wife. Then we find out she murdered the woman she is impersonating! This simply does not ring true to me, and it would have been much better if it had ended up as an identity theft plot.

Sorry, but neither my wife nor me liked this book, and we have six of them. Try reading them in sequence, and then just forget about this particular book.

I have been reading the Christine Bennett Mystery books in order and had just about decided to give it up as Christine was becoming abrasive and the books were becoming repetitive, and well, quite boring. I'm glad I read this one however because the mysteries in this story were very imaginative and the book on the whole was enjoyable.

If you want a mystery that is decent, enjoyable and not full of four letter words, this is for you.

The heroine is an ex-nun, however, this is only casually mentioned and is not dwelled on. I do not think it would alienate readers regardless of their religious beliefs.

Lee Harris proves it is still possible to write a mystery without all the blood and gore.