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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Fans of the traditional stately home murder case can rejoice the genre is alive and well in James's second mystery (after 2000's Cruel as the Grave). If Idlewild, a Mississippi manse, had a butler, you could be sure he'd be the murderer. Mary Tucker McElroy, Idlewild's matriarch and a belle of iron, summons her prot?g?s ostensibly to help her with her memoirs. In truth, she suspects one is a killer. Six months before, Sukey Lytton, a young woman writer whose viciousness had endeared her to no one, drowned. Her death was declared a suicide, but Mary Tucker thinks otherwise. To help her find the guilty party she hires Ernestine Carpenter, a retired schoolteacher in whom 40 years teaching high school English have instilled an iron will of her own. The guests assemble a motley crew of disagreeable literati whose conversation turns the dinner table into an arena for verbal gladiatorial combat. Sukey, it seems, wrote a novel, which is now missing. In it, she revealed the guests' darkest secrets. Stately homes all have dark secrets, even if the ones here turn out to be relatively tame. The final disagreeable guest to arrive is a literary agent loathed by all. Most disagreeably, he has found Sukey's manuscript: The die is cast. Before long, bodies lie draped about like antimacassars. Ernestine is a determined, if not very plausible, sleuth; but then nothing is truly plausible in this book. Still, it's fun to revisit the old stately home. Agent, Nancy Yost. (May) FYI: James is the manager of Houston's Murder by the Book. There's also a simultaneous trade paper edition ($13.95 ISBN 1-57072-183-1).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Recently retired from teaching high school English for nearly forty years, Ernestine Carpenter freely admits that she's more than a bit nosy. She is also good at solving problems, and she's let it be known, amongst her many friends and relatives, that she's willing to take on interesting jobs.Mary Tucker McElroy, well known as a patron of the arts in Southern literary circles, hires Ernie (as she is called by her nearest and dearest) to help her figure out which of her circle might have murdered one of their own. The group had gathered for the Christmas festivities at Idlewild, Miss McElroy's ancestral home in north central Mississippi, and one guest, writer Sukey Lytton, turned up dead in the pond one day, an apparent suicide.Six months afterwards, Miss McElroy is convinced that Sukey Lytton was murdered, and she wants Ernie to help her figure out the guilty party. Was it Lurleen Landry, best-selling author of Southern women's fiction? Did Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Russell Bertram kill her? Or was it his nasty, vindictive wife Alice? Maybe it was literary enfant terrible Brett Doran, who seems to have more than one secret to hide. Could Sukey Lytton's missing manuscript be the motive? Ernie finds danger lurking in unexpected places at Idlewild, as the killer continues to strike.
See all Editorial Reviews
Fans of the traditional stately home murder case can rejoice the genre is alive and well in James's second mystery (after 2000's Cruel as the Grave). If Idlewild, a Mississippi manse, had a butler, you could be sure he'd be the murderer. Mary Tucker McElroy, Idlewild's matriarch and a belle of iron, summons her prot?g?s ostensibly to help her with her memoirs. In truth, she suspects one is a killer. Six months before, Sukey Lytton, a young woman writer whose viciousness had endeared her to no one, drowned. Her death was declared a suicide, but Mary Tucker thinks otherwise. To help her find the guilty party she hires Ernestine Carpenter, a retired schoolteacher in whom 40 years teaching high school English have instilled an iron will of her own. The guests assemble a motley crew of disagreeable literati whose conversation turns the dinner table into an arena for verbal gladiatorial combat. Sukey, it seems, wrote a novel, which is now missing. In it, she revealed the guests' darkest secrets. Stately homes all have dark secrets, even if the ones here turn out to be relatively tame. The final disagreeable guest to arrive is a literary agent loathed by all. Most disagreeably, he has found Sukey's manuscript: The die is cast. Before long, bodies lie draped about like antimacassars. Ernestine is a determined, if not very plausible, sleuth; but then nothing is truly plausible in this book. Still, it's fun to revisit the old stately home. Agent, Nancy Yost. (May) FYI: James is the manager of Houston's Murder by the Book. There's also a simultaneous trade paper edition ($13.95 ISBN 1-57072-183-1).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Recently retired from teaching high school English for nearly forty years, Ernestine Carpenter freely admits that she's more than a bit nosy. She is also good at solving problems, and she's let it be known, amongst her many friends and relatives, that she's willing to take on interesting jobs.Mary Tucker McElroy, well known as a patron of the arts in Southern literary circles, hires Ernie (as she is called by her nearest and dearest) to help her figure out which of her circle might have murdered one of their own. The group had gathered for the Christmas festivities at Idlewild, Miss McElroy's ancestral home in north central Mississippi, and one guest, writer Sukey Lytton, turned up dead in the pond one day, an apparent suicide.Six months afterwards, Miss McElroy is convinced that Sukey Lytton was murdered, and she wants Ernie to help her figure out the guilty party. Was it Lurleen Landry, best-selling author of Southern women's fiction? Did Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Russell Bertram kill her? Or was it his nasty, vindictive wife Alice? Maybe it was literary enfant terrible Brett Doran, who seems to have more than one secret to hide. Could Sukey Lytton's missing manuscript be the motive? Ernie finds danger lurking in unexpected places at Idlewild, as the killer continues to strike.
See all Editorial Reviews
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