Wicked Women Whodunit [Paperback]

MaryJanice Davidson (Author), Amy Garvey (Author), Jennifer Apodaca (Author), Nancy J. Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

LETTERS TO MY READERS - MaryJanice Davidson. "It was Professor Tanten who did it, in the ballroom, with a martini shaker..." Aspiring mystery writer Caro Swenson can see that: Professor Tanten is standing there, covered in blood. But where's the body - or bodies? Six people are missing from the mystery weekend, and Caro's on the case with a hot-but-possibly homicidal hunk who seems to want to get his hands on Caro's...clues. SINGLE WHITE DEAD GUY - Amy Garvey. Lanie Burke's luck has gone from awful to downright...well, whatever comes after awful. She spent one insanely hot night with Mr. Drop-Dead Gorgeous, and now he's lying on the steps of her cabin looking kind of; well, dead. Now, she's got to figure out what to do with the body. Hopefully, she can get some help from the guy with groceries tromping through the snow toward her...the blue-eyed cutie with the broad shoulders who looks strangely familiar. FAST BOYS - Jennifer Apodaca. Tess Collins can't believe she managed to get caught up in a sleazy tabloid reporter's bid to get the dirt on NASCAR's pin-up boy, Ark Underwood. Now, the jerk reporter is dead on Underwood's hotel room floor, and Tess is duty bound to help Ark save his reputation. But joining forces with a world-class bad boy in search of a twisted killer only ignites white-hot fantasies, and unravelling this mystery goes hand-in-hand with unleashing every desire. THREE MEN AND A BODY - Nancy J. Cohen. Reality show contestant Heather Payne's assignment is simple: get a bed-and- breakfast in Winter Park up and running within seven days. It sounds like a piece of cake, until she meets the other cutthroat contestants, including the gorgeous Rex Gerard. He may be all business on the show, but in the B&B's wine cellar, he is only interested in Heather's pleasure. But s6meone wants to win at all costs, and when "accidents" start plaguing the show, Heather's afraid that she may be sleeping with the enemy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Each provides a good mystery with a bit of romantic byplay." --Mystery Lovers Bookshop

"WICKED" WOMEN WHODUNIT is a great anthology with just the right mixes of romance and mystery to make anyone happy." --Romance Readers Connection

These four amusing amateur sleuth romances are well written fine novellas starring wonderfully "wicked" women solving a murder mystery while finding the right hunk."
--Bookcrossing.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

MaryJanice Davidson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Undead novels featuring Betsy Taylor; Derik's Bane, and the new young adult novels featuring Jennifer Scales, written with her husband, Anthony Alongi, among other titles.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 329 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758210264
• ISBN-13: 978-0758210265
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,587,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Who dun such awful writing?, March 21, 2005

By 

Book Lover "oneidabooks" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wicked Women Whodunit (Paperback)

I picked this book up at a bookstore and clearly didn't make a wise purchase. For those of you who really like mystery and suspense, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! The writing is terrible and if you really like mystery and suspense, these are not the authors for you. Although I should qualify that and state that after the first two stories, I did not read the last two because I was sure they were probably the same style as the first two. The stories have no real plot other than "tired and bored city girl meets hunk and has sex with him." In fact the first two stories are so short on plot, suspense and writing ability that you could swear they were written by the same hand. Even the author's beloved sex scenes are poorly done and sound like the ramblings of an adolescent.
Do yourself a favor and don't buy this book. It is awful! The only mystery contained within these pages is how and why they were actually published.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Writing Whodunit..., April 7, 2005

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wicked Women Whodunit (Paperback)

This anthology is a complete and utter disgrace. The so-called whodunit novellas are a total joke. I cannot believe I spent fourteen dollars on this. Talk about money down the drain! The only mystery in this book is what made Brava decide to release this fiasco. All of the novellas (or at least the first three I read. I didn't bother to finish up the book by reading the last story) are underdeveloped and too abrupt to make the mystery remotely plausible. There is supposed to be some building of tension and slow gathering of clues in a whodunit. The reader gets none of that here. I love MaryJanice Davidson and am partial to her work, but even her novella was a major stinker. The plot is nonexistent, characterization is absent (especially with Turner -- the so-called hero in the story), the sharp wit and memorable quips are missing, and the murder mystery in reverse thing would have been clever had it been developed and executed in a better way. I also noticed that the character Dana had been described as a "pleasant-looking blonde with curly Orphan Annie hair and big blue eyes," and then her hair was later described as red. Which brings me to another problem I had with this book: poor editing. There is a plethora of mistakes in this book. Was this book rushed into printing or something? Well, one thing is certain is that the authors are encouraged to churn out crap at hyper speed! Ms. Davidson is such a wonderful author, but her work as of late is below par to her earlier stories and to the stuff she writes for Berkley. In fact, all of the stuff she has written for Brava -- with the exception of Under Cover, The Royal Treatment, and the novella in the How to be a Wicked Woman anthology was surprisingly good as well -- is nowhere near as good as Undead and Unwed, Thief of Hearts, Adventures of the Teen Furies (which I read just a few days ago), and the Wyndham Werewolf novellas in the Secrets anthologies. Hello Gorgeous! is pretty good, but also not up to Davidson's standards. I do not mention the other authors in this anthology because I am unfamiliar with their work. And I don't think I'll be giving their stuff a whirl again after reading this. I didn't expect War and Peace when I picked up this book, but I still expected something great -- or at the very least good -- for the amount of money I spent on this book. Alas, I won't be wasting my time or money on either the Bad Boys or Wicked Women anthologies anymore. I won't be ripped off this way again.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Whodun this lackluster effort?, March 22, 2005

By 

E. Leia Mehlman "Bibliophile" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wicked Women Whodunit (Paperback)

I felt cheated when I bought this book, and in fact, I ended up returning it. The efforts put forth by the authors for this anthology were lackluster for the most part. MJD's story was not even up to her usual hilarious standards, and I really had a hard time understanding why the two characters got together since there was little developement about their backgrounds, which matched the skimpy plot. Do yourself a favor, borrow a friend's copy or go to the library, but this is not worth the cover price.