Death of the Party by Carolyn Hart

The Book:

Source for ‘The Book’ section : From Goodreads

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.

The View:

This is my first book by Carolyn Hart and I was surprised that she has written quite a few. I picked “Death of the Party” hoping for a light weekend read, a mystery novel but nothing too heavy (even lighter than a cozy mystery) and I got exactly what I wanted. On a better day I would have dumped this one for a solid read but strangely my expectations for this week’s reading was rock bottom.

Britt Barlow is trying to set the record straight with regards to her brother-in-law Jeremiah Addison’s death a year ago. She invites everyone present on that fateful day to return back to Golden Silk – a secluded luxurious island. She also invites the Darlings (Annie and Max) to help find the murderer and the investigation kicks off from there.

The plot is interesting and set in Agatha Christie’s fashion where almost all the characters have motives. Some of them are rude and obnoxious during the stay, while a few others are eager to find the murderer and get back to normal life. It all appears to be pretense and the first expectation is for you to suspect every person, but then, this is where the plot fails. I knew who the murderer was right from the beginning and hence the excitement that is associated with a mystery was dead. The character description and definitions were rushed through and you cannot make a connection with anyone in this.

That said, I enjoyed reading this book and it served my purpose of a fun read but if you are looking for excitement and some mystery than you are better off picking any another cozy mystery. Rated a 3 on 5.

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Teaser Tuesday – 30th Aug 2011

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Here are the rules for participating in this meme..

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

“I can just sit for hours and hours, playing with him, watching him, picking him up, feeding him, putting him down. For me it’s not remotely bothering. Or rather, as Lucy’s husband, Roger, said (about the only interesting thing Roger has ever said), it is a kind of “Exquisite boredom.”"

Taken from page 156 – “No! I Don’t Want to Join a Book Club” by Virginia Ironside

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Women’s Murder Club Series – Completed

I don’t always finish all books from a series so I am terribly proud that I completed this one. Here are links to all the reviews. I will be obviously targeting Alex Cross next to keep myself entertained.

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Theme Thursdays [Trees] – 25Aug11

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week’s theme is

TREES (Plants/Greenery )

I am trying out the linky list for the first time this week. Please leave a comment with your link if it does not work fine. Also I do need suggestions for themes. So pour them in!!!

My THURSDAY THEME for TREES is here and I got a couple this week.

Had lunch with Lucy in her London pied-a-terre. She gave me a lovely pot of hyacinths.

On the cherry tree sat two woodpigeons as fat as gray cushions, and hopping on the lawn was a blackbird looking for worms among the daisies.

Taken from “No! I Don’t Want to Join a Book Club” By Virginia Ironside

Leave a comment here with a link to your post. Do make sure to visit and comment on other Theme Thursdays.

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The 9th Judgment by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

The Book:

Source for ‘The Book’ section : From the author’s website

A young mother and her infant child are ruthlessly gunned down while returning to their car in the garage of a shopping mall. There are no witnesses, and Detective Lindsay Boxer is left with only one shred of evidence: a cryptic message scrawled across the windshield in blood-red lipstick.

The same night, the wife of A-list actor Marcus Dowling walks in on a cat burglar who is about to steal millions of dollars worth of precious jewels. In just seconds there is an empty safe, a lifeless body, and another mystery that throws San Francisco into hysteria.

Lindsay spends every waking hour working with her partner Rich—and her desire for him threatens to tear apart both her relationship with her fiancé and the Women’s Murder Club. Before Lindsay and her friends can piece together either case, one of the killers forces Lindsay to put her own life on the line—but is it enough to save the city? With unparalleled danger and explosive action, The 9th Judgment is James Patterson at his compelling, unstoppable best!

The View:

With this, I have finished all the released books in the ‘Women’s Murder Club’ Series. I loved some and hated some, but I always enjoy reading a James Patterson book and that held true with all of these 10 books. The good thing about the Women’s murder club series is that you could pick a book right from the middle of the series and feel as if you have not missed a thing.

The 9th book is an entertaining page turner. The cases were very exciting and made you want to get to the end quick. The gruesome murders and the Kitty bandit crimes looked as if they were unrelated but slowly fit together like a complex puzzle. Suddenly everything made sense and the story only got better.

Of course the characters are fantastic. I have grown to love and adore the women. I particularly enjoy the interactions they have and they way they gel as friends first and partners next. Lindsay remains the star in both the plots and while I normally look for an equal participation from all the women, I liked how her role played in this one.

This book was definitely among the best books of this series. Rated a 4 on 5 for an exciting and happening plot.

PS: With every book you take some learning and with this I had a very basic one – Judgment can be spelled as ‘Judgement’ or as ‘Judgment’; of course I never knew this. How dumb!

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