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DEAD BY MIDNIGHT
by Carolyn Hart
William Morrow, March 2011
282 pages
$24.99
ISBN: 0061914975


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

You have to wonder if Broward Rock, South Carolina, is the south's answer to Cabot Cove, Maine. Like Jessica Fletcher, Annie and Max Darling stumble onto an alarming number of suspicious deaths in their small town. The most recent death is Pat Merridew, for many years a receptionist at one of the town's leading law firms. She was fired at the behest of the local Wicked Witch, Cleo Jamison, recently married to the widowed senior partner in the firm. Cleo wanted a receptionist who was young and attractive, and her husband grants her every wish. In addition, Cleo has driven the firm to the edge of bankruptcy, with her extravagant tastes and demands for such luxuries as Christmas in Paris.

When Merridew is found dead of a drug overdose, everyone except Max and Annie believe it suicide, brought on by despair at losing her job at an advanced age. Annie knows that Merridew abhorred the very idea of suicide.

However, investigating Merridew's death takes a back seat when Glen Jamison, senior partner in the firm, is found shot to death. Annie's inherent nosiness leads her to pursue the cases of what she is sure are two murders. Max, who is independently wealthy, enjoys passing his days playing on his indoor putting green in his office. However, he bestirs himself, in his job as a consultant, to assemble a dossier on every member of Jamison's family, each of whom had a compelling motive for doing Jamison in, from his sister, banished from the family home, where she had lived for years and tended the children, to each of the children, all of whom have been shunted aside by Cleo and pretty much denied access to their father. Also in the mix is a lawyer in the firm, also fired on Cleo's orders, who had left a major Atlanta law firm to return to Broward Rock and tend to an ailing relative.

Through her books, Hart has shown herself a master of plotting. Almost every page leads the reader -- incorrectly -- to suspect yet another person. Max and Annie are almost too good to be true, but the secondary characters -- especially Max's imperious mother -- are always good for a laugh.

§ Mary Elizabeth Devine taught English Literature for 35 years, is co-author of five books about customs and manners around the world and lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, April 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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