I'd Kill for That

by Marcia Talley (editor), Kay Hooper (contributor), Kathy Reichs (contributor)

On the banks of the Truxton River lies Gryphon's Gate, a gated community built by Henry Drysdale where the rich and privileged live, work and play. Tempers flare when Henry's ex- decides to develop the adjoining land and environmentalists, developers, residents and the media clash. Then the violence turns ugly--a dead body is found on the golf course and Detective Diane Robards is called in to investigate. Diane's efforts are thwarted at every turn and as she uncovers the secrets behind the serene facade of Gryphon's Gate, she races against the clock to unmask a ruthless killer.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Cozy Mystery

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award-winning author of DEAD MAN DANCING and six previous mysteries featuring amateur sleuth, Hannah Ives who, like the author, is a breast cancer survivor.

Marcia is author/editor of two star-studded collaborative novels, NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX and ID KILL FOR THAT set in a fashionable health spa and an exclusive gated community, respectively. Her short stories appear in more than a dozen collections including With Love, Marjorie Ann and Safety First, both Agatha award nominees, and the multi-award-winning Too Many Cooks, a humorous retelling of Shakespeares Macbeth from the viewpoint of the three witches. A recent story, Driven to Distraction won the Agatha Award, was nominated for an Anthony, and was reprinted in THE DANGEROUS BRIDE AND 21 OF THE YEARS FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES.

Marcia is immediate past president of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, serves as Secretary for Sisters in Crime National, and is on the board of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. She divides her time between Annapolis, Maryland and an antique sailboat in the Bahamas.
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Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A serial book of mystery and murder that takes place in a gated community named after a mythical creature. 13 female authors wrote this book by passing their chapter on to the next in line. Great character development and suspense up to the last few pages. While Marcia Talley edited this book, two great authors made me pick this up to read: Lisa Gardner and Kathy Reichs. Each of them have written over 10 books and are very good writers with excellent continuing characters from book to book. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery.

[Carol Farrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept for this book is interesting, each of 13 female authors wrote a chapter. Most I really enjoyed being lured further into the mystery and down wrong paths. There was only one chapter I felt didn't flow very well with what came before it. There were a lot of characters in this book and many were sleeping with their neighbors' spouses so at times it was confusing and I really had to think to keep track of who was who but if you can do that this is definitely worth a read.

[Book Concierge · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a cooperative / team effort among thirteen women mystery writers, each one writing a different chapter.

I thought the characters were over the top, and there was little character development. I thought there were far too many murders, almost as if each author needed to add a murder in her chapter. I thought the final critical scene where all is revealed was unbelievable, though I won’t outline my reasons here as that would be a major spoiler.

I would have abandoned it but it satisfied a couple of challenges. At least it was a fast read.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily the worst book I have read this year. This is a serial novel where a number of different authors contribute a chapter. Having been burnt before, I am not sure why I continue to read these collaborative novels. Obviously I get suckered in by the big-name contributing authors - in this case Reichs, Gardner & Fairstein (amongst others). Yet again I was let-down by a meandering and farcical plot-line, characters that lacked character and novel completely lacking in any sense of consistent direction. The best part about reading this book was finally finishing it so that I can move onto to something more enjoyable.

[Sharon Bidwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 2004, this is a multi-authored novel for charity with too many names to mention, but I picked it up because one of those authors is Jennifer Crusie. Apparently not a new idea, but this is the first time I’ve come across a published novel with a different author writing each chapter. Starting with the first and the next author carrying on the story until the last author writes the ending. A murder mystery with little romance. The novel has a lot happening, with a large and entertaining cast, and it all felt a bit of a jumble but was impressive, with many fun sections. Not sure it’s a book I would want to read twice, but it was worth checking out.

[Trish Goodgame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multiple authors - Gayle Lynds, Rita Mae Brown, Marcia Talley, Lisa Gardner, Linda Fairstein, Kay Hooper, Kathy Reichs, Julie Smith, Heather Graham, Jennifer Crusie, Tina Wainscott, Anne Perry, Katherine Neville
Each author writes a chapter to continue on the story. Published as a fundraiser for breast cancer. I read this several years ago so I'm a bit vague on how the story panned out, but there are some good authors here in this lineup.

[LyndaIn Oregon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This "serial novel", written round-robin style by a baker's dozen of authors, is basically a hot mess, with way too many characters, most of whom you wouldn't invite home for tea, despite their wealth and social status. There are several bodies and multiple suspects, but there's no heart and very little coherence to this tale.

[Genevieve Fair · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason why I’m giving this 2 stars instead of 1 is because i love a murder mystery. This book was awful. I really feel like these authors got together and were like, let’s have a competition on who can make the biggest piece of shit character! I get why they did it. So that everyone would be a suspect but oh my god.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a long time to read. It is a serial novel, each chapter written by a different author. For the most part that was seamless. There were many characters and I had much difficulty keeping them straight. It would have been helpful to have a chart of the characters, relationships, etc. I kept reading because I wanted to find out "who dun it." Even that was rather convoluted.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a serial novel. Some chapters are great, some are super cheesy, and others are not so great, depending on who is writing for the given chapter. It's about what you'd expect for a novel of this type, and while it will never win any awards, it was a fun little read.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept ... Have 13 authors each write a chapter of a mystery. Fun!

[Barb Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope

[Jill Frederickson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uneven due to the multiple author process, this felt scrambling at the end as they attempted to conclude the story.

[Bec Nightingale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to keep me interested

[Patricia Cochrane · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun book

[Suzie Quint · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why I read these collaborative novels. Okay, that's not quite true. Usually it's because one of my favorite authors wrote a chapter. In this case, that would be Jennifer Crusie. And when I hit chapter ten, I could feel the tension that had been building inside me with every successive chapter suddenly ease. Crusie wrote with her usual clarity, painting pictures in my mind with the subtlety of her prose. I felt like I'd come home to an old friend. The rest of the book was not so good. About a third of the other chapters were easy to read (only one made me think about reading more by that author.) Chapter 8 by Julie Smith was, IMO, so over the top that I'll never touch anything of hers. The rest of the chapter were (again my opinion) so badly written that I'm embarrassed for the authors.

That said, I admit that this type of mystery has never been on my list of must reads. They almost always have too many characters to keep straight without a scorecard. They almost always withhold vital clues (also know as making them up at the last minute to rescue the poorly crafted plot) so the reader has no chance to figure out who the killer is until the author chooses to reveal it. Not my idea of fun. I'm thinking that no matter who the authors are, this is my last collaborative novel.

[Robert Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This linear anthology has some great authors involved, a couple of which I've read several books and I have really enjoyed some other serial anthologies. This book however has a plot that struggles, a lot of superfluous violence and a cast of dodgy, potty, & self serving characters including some of the corpses.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light mystery by many authors. I liked the idea of having the authors take turns writing passages, but in practice I found that it made it difficult for me to keep the many characters straight, as I didn't have the stylistic cues to help me. And since pretty much all the characters were wealthy, white, early-to-late middle aged people who were self-centered and had dirty secrets and lived in the same complex, I found them all too similar to begin with.

[Colleen Lahey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a collaborative novel by 13 authors. Individually I like the writings of these authors. Together, the book lacks cohesiveness and the characters lack depth. This should have bee a typical who done it but with so many characters and no way to decipher the clues, the reader is left floundering. I had a super hard time finishing and will not be reading any more collaborative books any time soon.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an anthology edited by Marcia Talley.

Murders take place in a high class gated community on a marina in Maryland.

It never seemed like different voices writing this book, the story flowed and kept me guessing through to the end!

I think that the use of different authors gave this book more depth to each character and situation.

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

With so many authors writing a single chapter, I wasn't sure if this book would flow smoothly. It flowed very well. I was intrigued and everytime I thought someone was the murderer or could not be the murderer the authors would set doubts in my mind. I was hooked from the begining until the very end. I can say that I hope my final breaths do not come on the toilet.

[Eleanor Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thirteen writers collaborate by writing a chapter at a time. This leads to inconsistencies in character motivations as well as continuity in places. The book takes some completely unbelievable twists at chapter 12 and concludes with every stereotype imaginable including incest and an Indian burial ground. What started out somewhat promising (albeit gimmicky) ended in a complete mess.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! I've been looking all over for this book and could not wait to read it! I was excited to see how 13 different authors would write one book together! It was AWESOME! I am looking forward to the future and any other books that may be like this!!!

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot. Mostly because of the different writing styles of each chapter. It was a fun read. Each author wrote one chapter and then handed it off to the next to add to it.

It is a fun mystery.

[Maurean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book; written by 13 different authors, seven of whom I read with regularity, so not suprising that I enjoyed it. The *idea* is fabulous, and I will certainly look for other serial novels.....what a fun idea. and the storyline was entertaining as well.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I thought all the authors did a good job and that the story flowed very well. At times it seemed like there were too many characters and I had trouble keeping them all straight. I really enjoyed the ending as I had no clue until then who the murderer was.

[Jeannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be very interesting....each chapter was written by a different writer (all women.) It is my first "round - robin" book. At times it does not seem to read smoothly, but then it meters out.

[Patrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly good. Just from reading it, I would not have known that each chapter was the work of a different author. It meshes together very well. The end seemed a little rushed though.

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book, 13 authors each writing a chapter of a mystery novel, but the story overall just wasn't very good.
Some chapters (authors) were better than others, and it was interesting to read the different styles compiled together like that.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are 12 different authers writing this book. Interesting concept but it seemed like every author was trying to outdo the others by adding new and exciting characters. It was just too much craziness in the plot. It was interesting idea but too over-the-top for me.