'Tis the Season to Be Murdered

Susan Henshaw #8

by Valerie Wolzien

Exhausted after shopping for teenagers, struggling with cappuccino machines, and eating way too many cookies, Susan Henshaw is glad she hired "The Holly and Ms. Ivy" to cater her annual New Year's bash.

But when the blond and buffed Z Holly, chef extraordinaire and notorious ladies' man, is found strangled in a van full of helium balloons, Susan starts hunting for a killer -- and a way to save her party!

Though kept in the dark by the police, Susan crashes the holiday parties of the area Hancock, nibbling her way through epicurean delights and sordid tales of sin. Will she discover if really 'Tis the Season to Be Murdered?

Genres: Mystery, Christmas, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fiction, Holiday

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Valerie Wolzien is the author of the Susan Henshaw suburban mysteries and the Josie Pigeon seashore mysteries. Ms. Wolzien lives in an old house overlooking the Hudson River. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached online at valerie@wolzien.com.

Reviews

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its the middle of the holiday entertainment season and Susan Henshaw is just getting over all the gifting, baking and entertainment she has done with her family and looking forward to her New Year's bash. Instead of her doing the decorating and baking and serving for this annual event, she has been able to hire the newest sensation in catering companies, "The Holly and Ms. Ivy" Everyone is raving about their work and she is overjoyed about getting them for her own event.

That is until "Z" Holly, the Holly in the company title, is found strangled in a van full of helium balloons. And then there is a fire at one of the homes where Holly and Ms. Ivy was working. And Susan Henshaw is chomping at the bit to investigate — and stimied when the police keep her in the dark about the case.

Well, there is more than one way to find out information. Susan chooses to crash area holiday parties where she nibbles her way into possible and tantalizing clues. But the final clues seem to allude her when she tries to tie down who may have been involved with Z and who hated him enough to kill.

A basic enough premise for a cozy mystery. I have found that sometimes the mysteries in cozy mysteries are clever, sometimes not, but more important are the well-roundedness of the characters. They must feel believable to me and a large dose of humor and smarts are important.

In this book, however, I had a hard time believing Susan as either a sleuth or a society woman able to mingle with the best of her community. It was fun to read but there was no real drive to the story and its slow meandering with little movement to conclusion. Then close to the end of the book, everything seem to just drop at once and magically Susan has the answers to everything.

This in many ways was an unsatisfying read because I couldn't see what Susan was doing that put her further in trying to catch a murderer and there is no answer to how she came to the solution. Most of the book is about her getting herself into "I Love Lucy" type situations, her out-of-control dog and her secretive children and friends. I find it hard that she could even get herself out of her own neighborhood, let alone solve a knotty murder with a lot of potential suspects.

[Annette Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit too boring and slow for me

I had read 6 percent of this book and all I had was family squabbles, nasty gossip, life’s mintuae in detail, detail, detail. Just too boring for me.

[AmyJRyan · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's no way I can sugar-coat it: this book was awful. I guess I'm in the minority here, but I can recall no redeeming feature of this story. The characters are shallow, stereotypical, and just plain dull. Who killed Z? Who cares. We learn next to nothing useful about the victim, spend pages and pages on elite suburban Christmas parties and their menus, decorations, silly subplots, and more tedium. Amateur sleuth Susan Henshaw has none of the charm of a bungling Father Brown or a shrewd Miss Marple. Her ex-cop bestie Kathleen is working with ex-flame(?) chief-of-police Brett to solve the crime (because former police officers are always granted an all-access pass to current investigations), and both Kathleen and Brett tell Susan to stop asking questions, but Susan pouts and whines her way through one ridiculous "subtle" conversation after another. Um, did the chief of police never think to warn Susan that she faces an obstruction charge if she continues to poke her privileged nose into on ongoing investigation? I debated whether to just DNF this but kept thinking it might get better or even become one of those "so bad it's good" books. Nope, no such luck. A rambling, tedious, dated mess.

[J Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy it.
I read this book because I felt that this cozy mystery would be a nice change from my usual psychological thriller reads, particularly with the obvious link to the festival season. Sadly, it was not to be.
Valerie Wolzien is a successful author, and this book is the eighth in a series, so I thought i was on sure ground with this one. This basic plot of the book is very well thought kut and written. a Celebrity Chef is murdered at a very busy time of the year for his party catering company, and two amateur sleuths, who have been successful in the past, investigate. Their investigations includ3 crashing the parties of the rich and famous in their town. However, for me the book was very slow, and was overburdened with frequent details of food and cooking, and with traipsing around shops. Definitely, for me, too much information. All this slowed the story right ddown and almost became a main focus of the book. That said, I did learn something. Americans do not celebrate Boxing Day (26th December) as a holiday like the UK, but rather as a time to exchange unwanted presents at shops.
There is clearly a quality in the writing, but not one that shines for me. My personal experience of the book would be a 2 stars rating, but recognising the experience of the author I've given it 3 stars.

[Phil Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good story with a letdown at the end. Very anti-climatic.

[Phil Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good Christmas story, but the ending was anti-climatic.

[Desiree · Rating 2 out of 5]

slow, uninteresting characters and a feeble plot

[Tricia Ferguson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not impressed with this book, author could have said it in less words.
Didn’t always flow smoothly

[P.Dunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

So predictable and boring

[Suzieh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a cozy mystery but the main character, Susan was unbelievably annoying.
There’s many reasons I did not enjoy this book but here are my top 3, Susan dragging around an untrained puppy to neighbors “exquisite” homes, acting like a child because “her friends” were not including her in the investigation, the town full of middle aged women with nothing to do but shop and gossip.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. IMHO, Needless details kept this mystery from being a good read.

[Linda Phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

it’s the season

I gave this book 2 stars because I did read the whole thing, but overall it was pretty boring.
Pretty ridiculous!

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it didn't flow well and the ending awkward in the way it was set up.

[Matthew F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, no action

Made it through 26 pages of boring drivel before finally giving up. A murder mystery should have at the very least a little intrigue

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

It just didn't appeal to me. I did finish it but I just think it had too many descriptions of everything.

[Ernie Crofoot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a foodie

Good plot base but a bit too much on food details and life styles of the rich and notable. Character development s pretty slim.

[Cidney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I've read a book about Susan Henshaw before a long time ago and on beginning to read this book I realised why I did not like Susan Henshaw. She is irritating. She isn't a police officer, she isn't a private detective just an untrained nosey parker looking to find out who murdered who. The police tell her politely to but out of it, but does she, does she not. Hmm. I am not that familiar with how the police forces operate in america but here in the uk we have police who investigate everything, they dig deep and find the culprits, no interfering behind the scenes with witnesses or private detectives in murder cases nor interfering people who think they have a god given right to investigate a murder even when they are not trained or licensed to do so. If I could give this book zero then I would. Hmm perhaps interfering isn't the word. I didn't get to the end so have no idea who murdered Z and I really am not bothered, no matter how nice he was, having an amateur nosey parker investigating just made me quite cross, and presumably doesn't help the reputation of the american police forces, or does it??

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

This has everything I savor in a cozy mystery:

Lots of red herrings
Plot twists
Multiple character-based storylines expertly woven together
The plot and characters are well developed, layered, and complex
Humour!
The small town effect: lots of people who have known each other for years and have stories of their own that come into play
Well done editing

We are dropped into the action on page one, but don't actually know it. It's the typical holiday and family gathering happy mayhem with a talented catering company in the mix where one of the owners is missing, or maybe isn't missing. And then a body is found. But--there is no obvious motive.

It's also an intriguing read because we, the reader, never meet the victim. But everyone else has, and that's how we learn about the victim and the few, unlikely reasons for their death.

I was left wondering and curious from page one until the final chapter. To me, that's the mark of a most excellent mystery! As I said, brilliant!

Happy sleuthing!

[Michele Eskelin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very fun book. I enjoyed returning to the 90s and slowing down a bit. I thought it would be fun to try and slow my brain down as well and just savor the book; not even try to guess who the killer was. The author has a relaxed writing style that I enjoy, and I thought the characters were realistic. I loved that Catherine, Susan's best-friend was an ex-cop. I found this to be more believable with the cops allowing the two ladies to butt into their investigations. I can't wait to read the other books in this series!

[Barbara Deeprose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Susan Henshaw is a full time housewife and part time unofficial private investigator. This year she has decided to hire outside caterers for her new years eve party but one of partners is murdered and Susan sets out to find out who the killer is. It seemed to involve going to a lot of parties, and no one seemed to mind her turning up even if she hadn't been invited! Of course she solves the case before the police. I quite liked the story but I wasn't gripped by it. I would give it 3,5 stars.

[Jo Scales · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Murder Book was For Food Lovers

This book was all about rich people having catered affairs such as dinners or parties for special people to be honored. Much was written of the famed foods the catering business prepared along with the decorations they supplied. The murder was so forgotten that the reader was puzzled whether a murder had actually happened.








If you favor this type of book,

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy holiday cozies, so this fit the bill. Maybe I was in a last minute shopping fog, but I really didn't figure out who dunnit. There were some under lying questions that I was oblivious to as well: Cameo and Chrissy, Brett and Katherine's snub of Susan's investigating. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

[Denota · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and so interesting!

I am really impressed with this authors ability to pull me into the story,describing sights,sounds and experience as she did. This was a fun read I can't believe how far off target I was with the"who done it" part of the story. Enjoy

[Eirlys · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good re?ad

A murder mystery at Christmas is the beginning of Susan's search for the truth. It was Susan's decision to have her New Years party catered which gave her lots of time to snoop around. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe if I had read the series, I would have gotten into this better. I kept thinking that Susan should have stopped her investigation. Getting left out of the police investigation just made her an angry busybody.

[Joyce A Higginbotham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good puzzle until the end

What a party town Susan lives in. I liked the catering crew and how helpful and hard working they are. I could go for another dose of Susan's adventures.

[John Barberio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slushy read but foodie

I persevered as it was slow starting. Lots of descriptions of parties and food. Kind of slushy and genteel but no real surprises. If you enjoy genteel mysteries then go for it.

[Cozybooklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of this series and I read these books over and over.
They are well written and full of humor and great characters.
I wish there were more written, I would love to see a new one.

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my best bargain buy at Half Price Books of the past holiday season. It combines a lot of my favorites - cozy, series, holiday. Suburban secrets and typical 90’s Personal Drama abound here.

[Tambra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this at the Christmas section at the used bookstore, Did not realize it was part of a book series so I went and bought all the other ones so I Could read them all in order.