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ICING IVY
by Evan Marshall
Kensington, October 2003
320 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0758202253


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Literary agent Jane Stuart hasn't seen her best friend and old college buddy Ivy Benson in a while. Some time ago, Ivy's daughter had taken on the job of nanny to Jane's son and was later murdered. Ivy blamed Jane and they soon stopped speaking to each other.

Suddenly, Ivy reappears in Jane's hometown, Shady Hills, New York, with her new boyfriend, Johnny and Ivy indicates that she wants to renew her friendship with Jane. The two are thrilled to be back together again and Jane is happy that Ivy has a new man in her life. Jane's boyfriend, local police detective Stanley Greenberg, has immediate reservations about Johnny. Jane tries to ignore Stanley's police instincts and does her best to like Johnny because staying friends with Ivy is important to her.

Jane is asked to run a writers' retreat at the Mt. Munsee Lodge for a weekend and Ivy asks if she could go along. Jane agrees, thinking that they will have a nice time getting to know each other again while sharing a room. Unfortunately, Johnny, who is supposed to be away on business that weekend, says his plans have been cancelled and Jane has to make arrangements to get the couple accommodations together for the weekend.

Whilst they are all at the lodge Johnny flirts with a writer and Jane starts to suspect that there is something very wrong with him. When a strange man with a gun shows up at the lodge and chases Johnny into the woods she knows her detective boyfriend has been right on target about Johnny. Unluckily, because there is a blizzard going on at the time, no one is able to track the two men down.

ICING IVY by Evan Marshall, is the sixth book in the Jane Stuart and Winky the cat mystery series. Once again Jane is helping her police boyfriend solve murders.

The plot is a classic mystery, in that there is a short list of suspects who are confined to one location because of bad weather. In as much as this is a very common recipe for mystery writers to use, it's really quite familiar and cozy. Regrettably, the problem with this book comes with the characters. Not one person is likeable. Jane is too sure of herself and thinks she knows better than the police. Even more peculiar is that the police permit her to interfere with their own search to solve the crime.

Jane's method for finding the killer is to interview all the suspects, basically threatening them that if they don't talk to her they will have to talk to the police.

I found it annoying that the police, also known as her boyfriend Stanley, lets Jane lead him around by the nose, always backing down and permitting her do whatever she wants. All she has to do is not talk to him for an afternoon and Stanley is practically groveling at her doorstep. You begin to wonder if there really is a police department in Shady Hills, since they let civilians solve the murders.

There's also a side story about Winky the cat giving birth. We get to read many scenes of Jane, her son, and her housekeeper watching Winky feed the kittens. Then there's more time spent as they try to decide what to name the kittens. And then we are made to read every little thing that the new momma cat does as she interacts with the kittens. It's enough to give you a hairball.

I found ICING IVY to be unexceptional, but if you're a fan of the series and you were waiting with bated breath about the outcome of Winky giving birth, go for it. But if you haven't read any in this cozy series, I'd leave it in the bookstore.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, January 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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