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As always, a beautifully packaged book, thirteenth in what's billed as the Death on Demand series. This one again features Annie Darling and her Death on Demand bookstore located on Broward's Rock, somewhere off the Atlantic shore. The story concerns one of Annie's bookstore promotions gone awry. She papers the island with flyers trumpeting resident mystery writer-curmudgeon, Emma Clyde's signing appearance at the store. Annie offers a free book if readers can correctly identify some popular mystery fiction through the clues provided. This is an established ploy of author Hart who thus inserts numerous names of mystery authors and books into her narrative. The problem occurs when a mysterious someone uses Annie's flyer design to distribute a different series of similar-looking flyers, only this set raises questions about real-life deaths which have occurred on the island. Illogically, everyone on the island apparently jumps to the conclusion that the second set of flyers are is also from Annie. This damage to her reputation motivates Annie to enlist Max in a frantic attempt to find and destroy the second set of flyers, and to nail, in a manner of speaking, the perpetrator. Meanwhile, of course, Max's mother, Laurel, is off on a much more interesting adventure in her typical dotty fashion. The book has a curiously slapdash feel to it, as if the author was rushing to meet a deadline or another contractual obligation. Events occur which call for emotional upheaval but there isn't any. A sensational killing doesn't become known in the small community for too many hours. There are a surprising number of repetitious words and phrases which give the feeling of filler. On the other hand, Laurel is a wonderful character, the plot twists are adequate and the resolution is also adequate if reached rather abruptly. Carolyn Hart is an award winning author who has written a large number of classy, traditional mysteries. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. The reviewer is the author of INNER PASSAGES and A SUPERIOR MYSTERY http://www.Minnesotacrimewave.org/
Reviewed by Carl Brookins, February 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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