Death Walked In: A Death on Demand Mystery (Death on Demand Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from William Morrow
Annie Darling discovers the secret of the Franklin house, but Death Walked In . . .
Max Darling hasn't been interested in crime since his brush with a seductive young woman put him in danger of losing his freedom. He even refuses to talk to a woman who calls for help and says she is afraid. The caller leaves word she's hidden something in the antebellum house Max and his wife, Annie, are restoring. When Annie finds out, she hurries to the woman's home, only to discover her shot. Annie hears her final whisper as she holds the dying woman's hand.
Evidence links the dead woman to a nearby home, where a fortune in gold coins has gone missing. The gold coins, rare Double Eagles, were stolen from a house filled with visiting family members, twentysomethings hungry for money and several with secrets they must keep. Is one of them willing to kill for a fortune in coins? Or is it the dead woman's high school dropout son? Max is there when the police arrest the son, but the boy's shock upon learning of his mother's death convinces Max of his innocence. Max and Annie plunge wholeheartedly into the investigation.
But are the coins hidden in Annie and Max's Franklin house? The intruder who shoots at Max seems to think so. And who walks in when Annie discovers the secret of that house?
Set Sail for Murder (Henrie O Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Though retired newspaper reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, Henrie O to her friends, once turned down a marriage proposal from Jimmy Lennox, he's still one of her most cherished friends. So when he asks for her help on behalf of his wife, world-famous documentary filmmaker Sophia Montgomery, Henrie O reluctantly agrees to join them on a Baltic cruise. Sophia is the stepmother to the now-grown heirs of a great fortune, who are none too happy that she controls their inheritance. But do they really want her dead? Jimmy thinks so, and he wants Henrie O to prove it.
On the cruise, Henrie O soon realizes that this dysfunctional family is plunging toward destruction. As the ports of call pass—Copenhagen, Gdynia, Tallinn, St. Petersburg—death inexorably approaches. But Henrie O discovers that love, once kindled, never dies. When Jimmy is accused of murder and time is running out, she pursues a clever killer who won't hesitate to strike again.
Dead Days of Summer (Death on Demand)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Annie Darling, owner of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore, is understandably upset. It isn't like her p.i. husband Max to abruptly disappear—and homicide is definitely not his style. But when his car is found abandoned on a remote road with a brutally slain, once-beautiful young woman nearby and the murder weapon stashed in the trunk, Annie's worst fears seem justified.
The police have Max all but tried and convicted—except for Chief Billy Cameron, whose unshakable belief in his friend's innocence prompts his removal from the case. And as a media circus descends on tiny Broward's Rock, Annie will have to place her own life in jeopardy to clear her husband's name. But time is running out—and she has only one slim chance to unmask a killer who just may have committed the perfect crime.
Yankee Doodle Dead (Death on Demand Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Unless you find the idea of a woman who runs a mystery book store as an amateur crime solver just too cute for comfort, you'll have some fun with Carolyn G. Hart's latest cozy yarn about Annie and Max Darling, the Nick and Nora Charles of the South Carolina island resort town called Broward's Rock. Annie, of course, still keeps her Death on Demand book shop, matching wits with customers about unlikely murder methods from classic mysteries while serving them iced café lattes to ward off the summer heat. Max, the most underemployed private detective of recent memory (he doesn't seem to have had a paying client since 1995), is still as charming and sexy (to Annie, that is) as ever--although his annoying mother, Laurel, has become positively dangerous. But Laurel is only one of a veritable Orient Express-load of possible suspects when an obnoxious ex-military man is shot to death at the Broward's Rock Fourth of July Festival. The racist, sexist, antigay Bud Hatch could have been killed by any of his several enemies. It's up to Annie and Max to clear Laurel and various other friends of suspicion, and Hart certainly knows how to keep a familiar story from becoming too obvious. Other Death on Demand tales in paperback: The Christie Caper, Deadly Valentine, Death on Demand, Design for Murder, Honeymoon With Murder, A Little Class on Murder, Mint Julep Murder, Something Wicked, Southern Ghost. --Dick Adler
Master mystery spinner Carolyn Hart gives us the tenth high-spirited entry in her Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Award-winning Death on Demand series.
The most delectable sleuthing couple since Nick met Nora, Annie and Max Darling manage to find quite a bit of murder in their allegedly safe and serene South Carolina island resort town. After all, murder is Annie's business -- well, sort of. She's the proprietor of the popular Death on Demand mystery bookstore and cafe, and her establishment seems to attract trouble like Annie's pesky felines, Dorothy L. and Agatha, attract hairballs. Now, Annie and Max watch their Fourth of July holiday explode not only with fun and fireworks, but with murder as well.
The library board wants to declare its independence from new member, retired Brigadier General Charlton "Bud" Hatch, a man accustomed to being in charge. Hatch's takeover attitude has alienated everyone in town, especially the women. But Annie finds it difficult to ignore him at a crowded patriotic festival -- particularly when he's shot dead before her eyes...
Death in Paradise (Henrie O Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Six years ago, Henrie O's beloved newspaperman husband Richard lost his life on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Now, on a brisk March morning, a chilling message has arrived by Priority Mail claiming Richard's fatal fall from a towering island cliff was no accident--it was murder. Following cryptic clues and her infallible instincts to a lush and verdant tropical Eden--andto the lavish mountaintop estate of wealthy matriarch Belle Ericcson, where Richard spent his final days--the determined sexagenarian sleuth becoems privy to terrible allegations of greed and jealousy, adultery and abuse...and of a mystery surrounding the kidnap-slaying of Belle's eldes child CeeCee. But now that her search for the truth has brought Henrie O to this lethal paradise where giant palm fronds hide evil deeds from inquisitive eyes, she may never be allowed to leave alive. Because the deaths did no begin or end with Richard Collins...and someone's dark and enduring homicidal passions have yet to be fully satisfied.
White Elephant Dead:: A Death on Demand Mystery (Death on Demand Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Murder is, surprisingly, not all that uncommon on timy Broward's Rock, an idyllic sea island community off the South Carolina coast. Annie Darling's popular mystery bookshop, Death on Demand, is where the locals come to discuss the juicy details of each criminal offense--under the watchful gaze of a pampered feline prima donna named Agatha. But now Annie's dear friend (and best customer) Henny Brawley stands accused of murdering a Women's Club volunteer-cum-blackmailer. So Annie rouses her husband Max into action, and together they dive into the shark pool of dotty eccentrics and imperious belles who constitute the island's smart set. Because only there can the Darlings prove hapless Henny innocent--by detemining who among the well-heeled had the dirtiest little secret...and would kill to protect it.
Resort to Murder: A Henrie O Mystery
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Ex-reporter Henrietta "Henrie 0" O'Dwyer Collins joins a wedding party in glorious Bermuda -- only to discover that death is an uninvited guest.
Warm turquoise waters and balmy ocean breezes do little to ease Henrie O's discomfort at having to attend the wedding of her ex-son-in-law Lloyd to Connor Bailey, a beautiful widow with a dark past and a knack for attracting men. Recently recovered from pneumonia, the retired Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist joins her grandchildren at an elegant oceanfront hotel -- and is soon embroiled in a deadly puzzle that touches everyone connected with the impending union.
Death in Lovers' Lane (Henrie O Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
A Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter and journalism teacher at ivy-covered Thorndyke University, Henrietta "Henrie O" Collins demands of her students the same steadfast dedication to the truth that was the cornerstone of her own illustrious career. So when beautiful, ambitious Maggie Winslow decides to investigate a trio of hitherto unresolved local crimes, Henrie O urges her to pursue the story with uncommon vigor.
But the gifted future journalist's zeal may have cost her her life. The next day Maggie's corpse is discovered in Lovers' Lane--the very site of one of the unsolved mysteries the extraordinary young woman was exploring at the time of her brutal, premature death. The police and the Thorndyke powers-that-be are rabidly against Henrie O's involvement in the case. But, for Maggie's sake, the stubborn, sixtysomething investigator is determined to dredge up a past everyone seems to want to keep buried even if it means placing herself firmly in a relentless killer's path.
Death on the River Walk (Henrie O Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
In the opening scenes of Death on the River Walk, the veteran journalist and crime solver Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins (better known to mystery lovers as Henrie O) has a rendezvous with the matriarch of a San Antonio family. She says of this encounter with Maria Elena Garza:
We regarded each other. Her hair was as dark as mine, though mine does not have a raven gloss. My face is the more lined, hers smooth with a creamy complexion. I'm afraid that through years of asking questions and so often hearing lies or distortions, perhaps my gaze is more skeptical than accepting. But in the warmth of her regard, I felt my own defenses crumbling. She looked at me with eyes that have surely seen as much as mine and yet there was an eagerness and a vivacity I have lost.
This perceptive self-knowledge gives Carolyn Hart's Henrie O books an extra ingredient not always present in mystery series--characters who display real-life emotions, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses, who we can easily empathize with.
The circumstances in which Henrie O meets with the woman are troubling to say the least. Maria Elena Garza owns an art gallery on San Antonio's River Walk, and one of her young female employees has disappeared. A member of the large Garza tribe is a prime suspect in the girl's vanishing act. Although the potential scenarios under consideration aren't particularly profound or surprising, the milieu (a lovely shop full of gorgeous objects), the characters, and the bracing Henrie O herself are well worth the price of admission. Other Henrie O books include Death in Lovers' Lane and Death in Paradise --Dick Adler
Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins no longer chases hot stories all over the world, but murderous mysteries seem to find her. This time, a frantic phone call from an old and dear friend on the other side of the world sends Henrie O rushing to the fabled city of San Antonio to check out the baffling disappearance of her friend's devoted granddaughter, Iris Chavez. Iris, employed at the Tesoros Gallery on San Antonio's famous River Walk, has suddenly dropped from sight without a word.
Soon Henrie O discovers that amidst the exquisite objects in the prestigious gallery and among the family members is hidden a dark secret--one Henrie O must uncover if she is to find Iris. Late one dark night on the River Walk, Henrie O sees a sprawled body...and realizes that treachery and disgrace lurk in the shadows of an old and respected business...and death awaits anyone daring to uncover the truth.
Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins no longer chases hot stories all over the world, but murderous mysteries seem to find her.This time, a frantic phone call from an old and dear friend on the other side of the world sends Henrie O rushing to the fabled city of San Antonio to check out the baffling disappearance of her friend's devoted granddaughter, Iris Chavez.Iris, employed at the Tesoros Gallery on San Antonio's famous River Walk, has suddenly dropped from sight without a word.Soon Henrie O discovers that amidst the exquisite objects in the prestigious gallery and among the family members is hidden a dark secret--one Henrie O must uncover if she is to find Iris. Late one dark night on the River Walk, Henrie O sees a sprawled body...and realizes that treachery and disgrace lurk in the shadows of an old and respected business...and death awaits anyone daring to uncover the truth.
Death of the Party (Death on Demand Mysteries)
by Carolyn Hart
from Avon
Britt Barlow is certain her media mogul brother-in-law Jeremiah Addison's fatal tumble a year ago was no accident -- especially since she herself discovered, and disposed of, the trip wire someone had strung across the stairs. Now she's bringing all who were in attendance that weekend back to Golden Silk -- Addison's luxurious secluded island estate -- and inviting two extra guests, Annie and Max Darling, to help uncover a killer.
Annie Darling wouldn't miss this party for the world! And there certainly is no lack of suspects among the guests, each of whom had a substantial motive for doing in the insufferable tycoon. But the party turns deadly when a houseman mysteriously vanishes, along with the boats which are the only escape off Addison's island -- leaving the Darlings stranded on a floating rock in the middle of nowhere, too close to a solution for comfort, and stalked by a crafty murderer.
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