Saturday, April 2, 2011

Review: Dead by Midnight: A Death on Demand Mystery by Carolyn Hart



  • Author:  Carolyn Hart
  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow (March 29, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061914975
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061914973

Product Description

 

Solving puzzles comes naturally to Annie Darling, cheerful owner of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore on the lovely sea island of Broward's Rock. Annie is aided and abetted by her admiring husband, Max, who runs an unusual business that offers help to people in trouble.

A recent death appears to be suicide, but Annie suspects murder. To solve the case, she unravels the mystery of a towel hidden at midnight in a gazebo, the lack of fingerprints on a crystal mug, blood on a teenager's blue shirt, and the secret of a lovers' tryst.

Annie believes she has set the perfect trap for a merciless killer until her cell phone rings and Death whispers in her ear.


About the Author

 

An accomplished master of mystery, Carolyn Hart is the author of twenty previous Death on Demand novels. Her books have won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. She is also the creator of the Henrie O series, featuring a retired reporter, and the Bailey Ruth series, starring an impetuous, redheaded ghost. One of the founders of Sisters in Crime, Hart lives in Oklahoma City.

My Review

It is so wonderful to be able to escape to Broward's Rock and the Death on Demand bookstore with Annie and Max and their assortment of friends from famous authors to police detectives to restaurant owners on a new adventure.  Dead by Midnight is the twenty-first Death on Demand mystery and it is a wonderful addition to the series.

As always the writing is so smooth and enjoyable to read.  The plot is full of twists and turns and the identity of the murderer was a surprise to me as always in this series.  I've loved this entire series beginning from Max and Annie's courtship to their established marriage.  And it is wonderful that their marriage is solid and full of love.  They are a great partnership, always very supportive of one another.  I really enjoy the Death on Demand bookstore setting and I love that Ms. Hart is always dropping mystery writers names as I have found many a new author this way. And the first murder victim is a new employee of Annie's this time out.

The setting of Broward's Rock which is off the South Carolina coast is a wonderful setting.  We have another "new" old island family as the central characters in this mystery.  The Jamison family is full of victims and suspects.  And the bookstore employee murderee had been an employee of the Jamison's law firm until recently.  Annie knows her new employee had no reason to commit suicide and quickly determines it was murder and sets out to solve the case.  Another murder victim quickly follows.  Everyone looks like a suspect at some point and it takes Annie and Max's detective work to prove who the murderer is.  Great story!

Highly recommend this wonderful new addition to the Death on Demand series by Carolyn Hart.  It was just released this week so be sure to get your copy soon!

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