Killer Wedding (Madeline Bean Catering Mysteries #3) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "You...look...so...thin!" Darius's dramatic voice spoke each word with its own staccato punch..." (more)
Key Phrases: rough emeralds, ice sculptor, car jacked, Vivian Duncan, Jack Gantree, Albert Nbutu (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Delightful. Accept an invitation to Jerrilyn Farmer's KILLER WEDDING. You'll be glad you did." -- Harlan Coben, Edgar Award-winning author

"Entertaining...moves briskly, boosted by crisp dialogue...outlandish situations that are still grounded in reality." -- --Amarillo, Texas Sunday News-Globe

"I'm tempted to describe Jerrilyn Farmer's books as guilty pleasures -- except I don't feel a trace of guilt for succumbing to the spell of this Hollywood charmer. Madeline Bean gives great dish in every sense of the word. That sound you hear is me pounding the table with knife and fork, demanding more, more, more." -- Laura Lippman, Edgar Award-winning author

"I'm tempted to describe Jerrilyn Farmer's books as guilty pleasures -- except I don't feel a trace of guilt..." -- Laura Lippman, Edgar Award-winning author

"Jerrilyn Farmer has raised the bar for the amateur sleuth mystery in a most provocative and exciting way." -- Sujata Massey, Agatha Award-winning author

"Shows her flair for plotting and likable characters...Farmer ladles on the humor with a fine hand." -- --Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Product Description

Although not about to say "I do" anytime soon, hip party-planner Madeline Bean is no stranger to the phenomenon known as the LA wedding; the good, the bad and the kind where the party lasts longer than the marriage. Still, Maddie never expected to be the guest of Vivian Duncan, the West Coast's grande dame of wedding consultants, at a lavish affair held amidst the dramatically lit fossils in the Nature Museum's Hall of Dinosaurs. While checking out the glittering event, Maddie, with her keen event planner's instinct, realizes something is not quite right, but what? The groom is on time. The bride is beautiful. And a corpse wearing a Cartier bracelet is dangling from the triceratops skeleton. Ah, yes. That.

With people disappearing and the bride in tears, Maddie just may be the next species to become extinct...unless she can reveal the murderer fast. Quicker than she can whip up a white chocolate wedding cake, Maddie follows the trail deep into dark jungles---urban and otherwise---amid tantalizing tales of smuggled gems, while fending off a nervous bridegroom, a crazed carjacker, and a half-naked ice-sculptor and his trusty chainsaw. Along the way, she discovers something old, something new, something deadly and something a wedding pro should never, ever do.

Although not about to say "I do" anytime soon, hip party-planner Madeline Bean is no stranger to the phenomenon known as the LA wedding; the good, the bad and the kind where the party lasts longer than the marriage.Still, Maddie never expected to be the guest of Vivian Duncan, the West Coast's grande dame of wedding consultants, at a lavish affair held amidst the dramatically lit fossils in the Nature Museum's Hall of Dinosaurs. While checking out the glittering event, Maddie, with her keen event planner's instinct, realizes something is not quite right, but what? The groom is on time. The bride is beautiful. And a corpse wearing a Cartier bracelet is dangling from the triceratops skeleton. Ah, yes. That.

With people disappearing and the bride in tears, Maddie just may be the next species to become extinct...unless she can reveal the murderer fast. Quicker than she can whip up a white chocolate wedding cake, Maddie follows the trail deep into dark jungles---urban and otherwise---amid tantalizing tales of smuggled gems, while fending off a nervous bridegroom, a crazed carjacker, and a half-naked ice-sculptor and his trusty chainsaw. Along the way, she discovers something old, something new, something deadly and something a wedding pro should never, ever do.Although not about to say "I do" anytime soon, hip party-planner Madeline Bean is no stranger to the phenomenon known as the LA wedding; the good, the bad and the kind where the party lasts longer than the marriage. Still, Maddie never expected to be the guest of Vivian Duncan, the West Coast's grande dame of wedding consultants, at a lavish affair held amidst the dramatically lit fossils in the Nature Museum's Hall of Dinosaurs. While checking out the glittering event, Maddie, with her keen event planner's instinct, realizes something is not quite right, but what? The groom is on time. The bride is beautiful. And a corpse wearing a Cartier bracelet is dangling from the triceratops skeleton. Ah, yes. That.

With people disappearing and the bride in tears, Maddie just may be the next species to become extinct...unless she can reveal the murderer fast. Quicker than she can whip up a white chocolate wedding cake, Maddie follows the trail deep into dark jungles---urban and otherwise---amid tantalizing tales of smuggled gems, while fending off a nervous bridegroom, a crazed carjacker, and a half-naked ice-sculptor and his trusty chainsaw. Along the way, she discovers something old, something new, something deadly and something a wedding pro should never, ever do.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Avon (March 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380795981
• ISBN-13: 978-0380795987
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #486,818 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 3 in The Madeline Bean Catering Mystery Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killer Wedding is a Killer Mystery - Great!, March 4, 2000

By	Maria Y. Lima "Chickwriter" (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When Madeline Bean & crew plan events - they usually do so with panache & style. This is what leads wedding planner diva Vivian Duncan to corner Maddie, forcing her to help out, while plotting to sell a reluctant Maddie the whole wedding consulting business. Realizing she's been set up, Maddie reconciles an arguing couple, gets invited to their over-the-top wedding at the L.A. Museum of Natural History only to find Vivian lying dead on top of a Triceratops skeleton. With a mysterious ice sculptor who disappears, the discovery of many of the wedding participants' former ties to a particular part of Africa, Madeline Bean finds herself involved in a complicated murder despite friend and would-be romantic partner Detective Chuck Honnett's misgivings.

This is the third book in a series which only gets better. Not your typical "theme" mystery, KILLER WEDDING contains strong characters and a complex story while entertaining and amusing you at the same time. Jerrilyn Farmer knows her stuff!

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killer Wedding is a killer mystery, March 5, 2000

By	Doris Ann Norris (Fostoria, OH USA) - See all my reviews

Maddie Bean, in her third book, is an event planner who gets manipulated into taking a hand with a wedding that is to take place in a Natural History Museum. LA's top wedding planner is found dead on top of a dinosaur skeleton. Maddie is "forced" into the investigation. A top notch novel and the book, besides having a very good mystery, is full of wit and humor which in no way detracts from the mystery. Farmer gets better and better. Killer Wedding is quite a wonderful book and proves that Farmer continues to improve and certainly deserves her Agatha nomination for her second book, "Immaculate Reception."

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest mysteries I have ever read!, May 3, 2000

By A Customer

I loved Jerrilyn Farmer's first two Madeline Bean mysteries, Sympathy for the Devil and Immaculate Reception, but in Killer Wedding Ms. Farmer has outdone herself! I laughed so hard I cried. The scene in which the murder victim is found hanging from the jaws of a giant dinosaur skeleton has got to be one of the best I've read. And the author's sendup of the whole Hollywood party scene, not to mention a bunch of wildly zany characters, makes this mystery pure fun from start to finish. I am now adding JERRILYN FARMER to my list of all-time bestseller faves including Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton and Diane Mott Davidson. Trust me, this writer is going to go far! BUY this book. You'll thank me.