Deathday Party

Mysteries by Design #2

by Paula Carter

Meet Hillary Scarborough, a domestic artiste with a flair for design...and Jane Ferguson, an ex-law student who can't cook or decorate to save her life. Between the two of them, they solve more crimes--and decorating disasters--than any other belles of the South.

Local psychic Cassandra Bean has hired Elegance du Sud to supply a banquet in honor of her great aunt--who died several years ago. When Hillary and Jane arrive at the Bean residence, they are told that Cassandra, though young and healthy, has died of a heart attack. The surviving menbers of the Bean clan insist on having the party anyway--for they fear reprisal from ancestral Beans who haunt the family home. And the list is growing as Uncle Bruce--among others--turns up dead. When a flash flood leaves Hillary and Jane stranded in the house, they find themselves plagued by nocturnal visitors. But they can't really be ghosts...can they? To find out, the intrepid caterers must finish the job they were hired to do--and try to avoid being finished off in the process....

Genres: Mystery

197 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Paula Griffith Paul aka Paula Paul

Reviews

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This outing in the series didn’t work as well as the first book for me. This book used a classic plot device, the isolated house in the country, a storm, a bridge to the house washed out, and from then on it “And Then There Were None” territory. This book was written in 1999 but it came across as a much earlier time and yet it was obviously supposed to be set currently. Although I have read and enjoyed mysteries with this “isolated country house” plot device, it just didn’t ring quite true in this case.

I still enjoyed the protagonists, although Hillary is becoming progressively sillier. I think that I would have enjoyed another mystery set in the town so that Hillary and Jane would interact more with recurring characters, rather than introduce an entirely new large cast of characters.

I will read the third and last book in the series if I come across it because I did enjoy the first book quite a bit.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane's boss Hillary (the self-styled southern Martha Stewart) has taken a catering job way out in the country. Not until they're almost there does she reveal to Jane that it's a birthday party for someone who's already dead--and who may be a murderess. Or does it count, Hillary wonders, if the murder victim was already dead? Common-sensical Jane doesn't believe in ghosts, but she's not really happy when the only bridge connecting the remote Bean mansion to the main road washes out in a flood, and they learn that the woman who hired them has also, unfortunately, passed away suddenly. Not that the family is willing to forgo the party, even so.

[Jeannie and Louis Rigod · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about when Party Planner, Hilliary, and her business employee, Janet are hired to give a Birthday party to a woman's Great-Aunt. The situation becomes odd when they realize that the Great-Aunt is dead and has been for quite a while. The story has an old mansion in the woods, a bridge that floods out, and relatives that appear dead then not!

I found myself a bit weary of Hilliary fairly quickly and the story was predictable to me. It is a gentle cozy and quickly read.

[audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Banter makes a great cozy, is the bottom line of this little gem. The formidably amusing duo of Southern belle Hillary and fish-out-of-water Jane is rescued from cliche by zippy dialogue that never interferes with the haunted house and its more-than-eccentric Gothic family. Whodunnit's fairly clear early on, but you don't really mind. Loved the recipe for Hillary's Brandy Sauce, wish we could've had the recipe for the pecan-cranberry quickbread she mentions, too. But definitely a keeper.

[Nancy Haddock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I got this book at a library book sale, copyright 1999. If you read this "straight," you may be disappointed. If you image the sleuths as updated, female Abbott and Costello -esque, you'll have a blast with it!