Posts Tagged ‘Carolyn Hart’
I love the Darlings! In Carolyn Hart’s latest, Dead, White & Blue, Annie and Max Darling are looking into the disappearance of a young islander. Where did Shell Hurst go after the dance?
Since arriving on Broward’s Rock, Shell has caused quite a stir. Wrecking marriages, having affairs, threatening blackmail…the young beauty has been busy. Some think she just left the island. But there’s no proof either way. When a teen is accused of having something to do with her disappearance, Annie and Max know something needs to be done and they set out to find Shell’s whereabouts.
I really wish there was a Death on Demand mystery book store nearby me! I would be there every week. Not just for the books, but for the ambiance and to get in the middle of this mystery-solving group!
This is a nice read. Some of the mystery-solving was done by leaps and bounds, but the story was a good one. The good guys were likable and the bad guys just bad enough.
My only complaint was the repeated commenting on porpoises jumping. These were some busy porpoises. Well, I’m assuming since they were mentioned so often! But they were only slightly distracting and shouldn’t stop you from reading Dead, White & Blue!
Let me know what you think!
I love Carolyn Hart books. Which is why I feel silly being a little wary of her latest, What The Cat Saw. Lately, I find a book with a paranormal twist and I’m on guard for a really really bad ride. Most of the time I am wrong. Which was the case with this book.
Nela Farley suddenly developed the ability to read the minds of cats when her fiance was killed. When she goes to Oklahoma to help out her sister, she ends up rooming with a dead woman’s cat. The cat is telling Nela that the accident was not really an accident at all. But who would want Marian Grant dead? Why? Nela puts her investigative reporter skills to use and sets out to find the answers to those questions.
Hart has a pleasant, low-key way of telling a tale. I’m not saying she doesn’t create page-turners. But she keeps everything to a low simmer, bringing out the story slowly and delectably. If I was a wine drinker, I would make some comparison to a heady burgundy–whatever that is!
What Carolyn Hart does is make you want to know the characters better. Which is why I am tickled that What The Cat Saw is the first in a series, according to her website!
This is a can’t miss! Check it out!
Carolyn Hart’s Death Comes Silently is her latest Death on Demand mystery. Set in South Carolina, Annie Darling runs Death on Demand, her mystery book shop, while her husband, Max, runs Confidential Commissions–an agency that helps people without Max being an actual private investigator.
In Death Comes Silently:
Annie is frazzled hosting a local island author’s signing and reading at Death on Demand. So she doesn’t feel it’s necessary to immediately respond to the volunteer who took her shift at the local charity shop. Gretchen is known as a drama queen and her phone call prattling on about the recent death of another island resident don’t make much sense. The death had already been classified an accident–after all, a novice kayaker took to the water in the cold winter night and capsized! But Annie’s silenced cell phone and failure to listen closely to Gretchen don’t sit well when the woman is found murdered on the floor of the charity shop.
It’s so easy to accuse the young handyman with the criminal record. After all, Gretchen was complaining about him as well as the notecard she claims to have found in the dead man’s clothes that had been donated. Gretchen said something about murder…
For a death that was originally thought to be an accident, the number of people who wanted him dead grows: a discontented young wife, her lover, the man who owed him money, his nephew who got control of the trusts on his death, even his young teenage niece is suspect!
Carolyn Hart’s characters are likeable and smart. With her descriptions, I am able to hold clear pictures of each of them in my head as I read. I especially love the descriptions of the island…even in the winter I wanted to be there!
As always, it’s a quick read. It’s perfect for spring break or summer vacation!
I am a big fan of Annie and Max Darling, the main characters in Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series. Dead by Midnight is another romp I’m pleased to have shared with the Golden Couple.
Annie, proprietress of the murder mystery shop Death on Demand, hires the former secretary of a prestigious law firm to work for her. She is surprised when she ends up dead. But while the police claim her death is a suicide, Annie is certain they are wrong. Together Annie and Max wander about their South Carolina island paradise, and get to the bottom of the mystery.
Carolyn Hart does a nice job of weaving the tale, making you suspect so many different people! Because of the Death on Demand novels and her creation of the perfect island landscape, I feel a need to find a similar place to visit and maybe live!
Definitely check this one out. You don’t need to start at the beginning of the series, but it wouldn’t hurt. It would be time well spent with some pleasant people in a gorgeous setting!
