Murder Follows Money

Liz Sullivan #6

by Lora Roberts

POISONOUS PERSONALITIES

The grandmotherly disposition that food celebrity Hannah Couch dishes out in her bestselling books and on her TV shows is totally missing when Liz Sullivan joins Hannah's San Francisco publicity tour as media escort. In private the lady is unpredictable and cruel, and so is her chief assistant, tight-lipped Naomi. Yet a mysterious missive among Hannah's messages has the power to make both women turn pale, and an innocent bowl of ivy and forget-me-nots delivered to their luxurious suite nearly causes cardiac arrest.

What's cooking? Before Liz can find out, a killer joins the tour and Liz is in the soup as a front-burner murder suspect. . . .

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

Aka Lora Roberts Smith, Lora R. Smith.

Lora Roberts was born and raised in Missouri, She's lived for twenty years in Palo Alto, California, where her two mystery series featuring homemaker/writer Bridget Montrose and vagabond Liz Sullivan take place. After doing newspaper work, public relations work, technical editing, and romances, She really enjoys writing mysteries.

Reviews

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot about this book that makes no sense, including why the San Francisco detective decides to question all the suspects and witnesses in one room, a la Nero Wolfe, but it really doesn't matter. Just as she previously showed us how a vagabond lives on next to no income, and how a temp job in an office goes, in this one Lora Roberts takes us behind the scenes of a food writer's book tour. She also brings Liz Sullivan and Paul Drake to the brink of matrimony. Now I have to go find the series where Bridget Montrose gets her own mysteries to solve, because the women characters are too good to let go of just yet.

[Vicki Gooding · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cozy does not present much of anything believable in the between pages of the murder and the investigation toward the end. Even that was unique, The exception through the book is perhaps how the person Liz actually lives like so many of us, rather than a more elite lifestyle that many cozies portray. Even if the story line is one that masks the realistic situation, it was fun, easy to read and difficult to stop until finished. I absolutely love this author and am looking forward to reading other books from this series.

[Gabby · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the beginning I pictured Paula Dean as the food celebrity in this story. Watching Paula Dean, and reading about the celebrity home cook in this book... well, they don't call 'em Steel Magnolias for nuthin'. Liz Sullivan, though, is another piece of work entirely, and I liked her very much. This is the first book I've read in the Liz Sullivan series, so I'm not totally familiar with her back story; just what was revealed in this book. As the central character in the series, I thought she was fascinating as the hard edged don't-take-crap-from-anyone strong woman covering up a sometimes insecure person with common sense and a soft heart when the right pressure is brought to bear. I've read other authors who try to bring this kind of character off in cozy mystery series, but Lora Roberts actually does it without making her character so contrived as to seem schizophrenic. It didn't matter to me that the mystery wasn't much of a whodunit. I wanted an entertaining read with characters who seemed more real than fictional imitations of people, and that's exactly what I got. Since I am a food channel addict, I also thought I might enjoy a mystery using that kind of scenario. Again, I got what I was hoping for.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes: cozy mystery, cooking, TV shows
Setting: modern San Francisco

Liz Sullivan picks up a temp job as a celebrity liaison to a cooking show maven, Hannah Couch. As anyone could have predicted, Hannah is nothing like she is on TV, demanding and unpredictable. But her assistant/partner is even worse. Liz almost walks out on the job, but against her better instinct, she agrees to stay. The next day, one of the women is dead, and Liz is caught in the middle, kidnapped and taken hostage. Sort of.

This is not the first Liz Sullivan mystery I've read. I remember reading the first one a long time ago and enjoying it. It is a cozy, sort of, but the main character is not the fluffy chick that seems to be so common in most recent cozies. Thank goodness. I wouldn't call this great, but it was fun and it was an improvement on the last cozies I just read. It makes me sort of want to go back and read the first in the series, Murder in a Nice Neighborhood. A much better title than this one, BTW. 2.5 stars

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quite a bit. A deviation from the usual cozy plot had the narrator be kidnapped, and from that position try to figure out what had actually happened.

[Peggi Warner-Lalonde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one in a series that I truly enjoy.