Veiled Threats [Hardcover]

Deborah Donnelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2002

She thought she was planning a wedding.
What she got was ... Veiled Threats.

A wedding to die for....

When love is in the air, Carnegie Kincaid is not far behind. A wedding planner who works out of her Seattle houseboat, Carnegie makes magic — usually — with fractious families, brimming brides, and cantankerous caterers to give loving couples the wedding they’ve always wanted. So why is her dream job turning into a perfect nightmare?

It started when Carnegie agreed to plan the wedding of one of Seattle’s most prominent families — who happen to be going through a high-stakes, headline-grabbing legal war. Before she can get her bride-to-be into just the right dress, a murder and a kidnapping plunge Carnegie into a mystery of extortion and violence.

With a shadowy figure stalking her, a rich lawyer wooing her, and an annoying reporter pursuing her, Carnegie is putting all wedding plans on hold. In an explosion of sheer terror, she must hunt down a killer — till death do her part....

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reminiscent of Donna Andrews's Murder, with Peacocks, this zany mystery is a bubbly blend of farcical humor, romance and intrigue. Seattle-based wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid (named after robber baron Andrew Carnegie) has just landed the job that could propel her small business, Made in Heaven Wedding Designs, into the limelight. Nickie Parry's marriage to concert pianist Ray Ishigura promises to be the season's biggest high society wedding, and with Nickie's deep-pocketed, doting father footing the bill, it will likely put Carnegie on Easy Street and get her aging business partner and accountant, Eddie, off her back about their finances. But when someone dies in a suspicious car crash and the bride is kidnapped, the impending nuptials turn from a dream into a nightmare. Relying upon her sharp intuition and active imagination, Carnegie attempts to root out the culprit, and she finds an unlikely ally in Aaron Gold, the short, aggressive reporter who's been hounding the Parry family for weeks. First-time author Donnelly will beguile readers with her keen wit and mint descriptions (the white wedding gown is "a symbol of purity, like the safety seal on an aspirin bottle"), but it is her characters such as Boris the Mad Russian Florist, who is "265 pounds of Slavic fury" that make this a stellar debut.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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

From Booklist

When struggling wedding consultant Carnegie Kincaid finally lands the society wedding of Nickie Parry, daughter of the very wealthy Douglas Parry, who is embroiled in a savings and loan fraud scandal, she thinks things are looking up, but then the disasters begin. At a wedding reception, Carnegie mistakes Holt Walker, a hunky wedding guest who just happens to be Douglas' attorney and close friend, for a waiter and chastises him for his inappropriate attire. Then a drunken bridesmaid takes the bride's car and dies in a crash. Conflicts arise over the wedding gown and expenses, and sleazy tabloid reporter Aaron Gold makes it all worse. As a romance heats up between Carnegie and Holt, Carnegie is shocked that a kiss stolen by Aaron can elicit such heat, but when the bride is kidnapped, things really get dicey. Donnelly's fast-moving story and likable sleuth will please readers who like romantic soft-boiled mystery. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: San Val (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417712643
• ISBN-13: 978-1417712649
• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Hello! I'm a sea captain's daughter who grew up in Panama, Cape Cod, and points in between. I attended Macalester College in St. Paul, and earned a masters in library science at the University of Washington. And I've been cooking up stories ever since I could think.

Over the years I've occupied myself with several occupations. I've been an academic librarian in Walla Walla, an executive speechwriter in Seattle, and a rather improbable nanny in Singapore. Along the way I wrote science fiction stories that appeared in Asimov's, F&SF, and Universe - not to mention reprints in Portuguese and Lithuanian!

Then my best friend and I got married (though not to each other) within the same few months. The fun of planning our weddings, combined with an evening course in mystery writing, led to the creation of Carnegie Kincaid, bridal consultant and amateur sleuth. VEILED THREATS, published by Bantam Dell in January 2001, was soon followed down the aisle by DIED TO MATCH, MAY THE BEST MAN DIE, DEATH TAKES A HONEYMOON, and now my latest, YOU MAY NOW KILL THE BRIDE.

I was long-time Seattleite, just like Carnegie, but I've been living in the sunshine and sagebrush of Idaho with my husband and our two Welsh corgis. Now we're in the process of moving to Portland, Oregon - a new adventure! I'm a gratefully healthy breast cancer survivor, and I love to go hiking in the mountains and to throw parties - though none quite as fancy as the show-stoppers that Carnegie puts on.

Some of the events in my books are inspired by real wedding stories that I hear from readers. So if you have a triumph, a disaster, or just a funny tale to tell, please email me via my website at www.deborahdonnelly.org. Thanks for reading!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Carnegie solves a murder and saves her business, April 2, 2002

By 

Moe811 (New York USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Veiled Threats (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Set in Seattle, this Carnegie Kincaid mystery starts out at a wedding that Carnegie has planned. Everything is going well until a drunken bridesmaid steals the keys of another bridesmaid(Carnegie's next client} and crashes her classic Mustang into a wall, killing herself instantly. Carnegie is overcome with guilt and anxiety over the future of her business, especially since it appears that her next client, the daughter of a very wealthy man, has many dangerous enemies who just might make his daughter, Nikki, their target.

I initially was a little skeptical that a mystery about weddings and their planner would hold my interest, but I was pleasantly surprised. The characters are very real, and I didn't figure out the mystery until the very end. Very good mystery.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite Cozy, but Fun, August 16, 2002

By 

Ellen E Kennedy (Cary, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veiled Threats (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Harder-edged than one might expect from a cozy mystery about a wedding planner,VEILED THREATS is nonetheless engrossing. Weddings are a stressful time, and Carnegie Kincaid is understandably flustered as a drunken bridesmaid makes a scene at the reception, then roars off in the bride's car, only to be killed in a crash moments later.

Why this would be the fault of the wedding planner is hard to fathom, but this incident kicks off a series of disasters that brings her wedding planning business to the brink of extinction.

Tenderly wistful one moment, sexually agressive the next, Carnegie Kincaid is hard to pin down and just a little bit careless with her heart. Some of her missteps are so obvious, one wants to shake the girl, but she's engaging enough to make us care, and the easy humor makes it well worth the read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A smart, sexy mystery!, January 2, 2002

By 

Kate Everett (Shoreline, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veiled Threats (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

If anyone out there is looking for a fun read, you've got to pick up Veiled Threats. The heroine,Carnegie Kincaid, is just plain fun to hang out with as she sleuths her way into trouble. With zany supporting characters and a lively plot, this is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter day (or a steamy summer night). I'm definitely adding this one to my keeper shelf.