Die Eisfrau.

Olivia Brown #2

by Annette Meyers

Olivia Brown (Oliver to her friends)--bohemian poet, advocate of women's rights and free love, and connoisseur of bootleg gin--has the unpleasant habit of stumbling across dead bodies. When she finds Fordy and Kate Vaudes' demure nanny, Adelle, hanging from a tree during a country house weekend, Olivia is sure suicide is the wrong assumption. After all, why would Adelle hang herself with a man's leather belt? Back in Greenwich Village, Oliver and her housemate, private detective Harry Melville, plunge into an investigation that takes them from Oliver's gently gin- soaked literary world to an array of nefarious dens of iniquity. Adelle, it turns out, was Adeline Zimmerman, former Pinkerton detective; Daisy, one of the guests at that country weekend, was Adeline's sister; and both Zimmerman women were having an affair with Lester Nolan, the corrupt cop ("a wax model of a hero in human clothing") who's doing the commissioner a favor by looking into the murder. What (or whom) was Adeline investigating? What has caused the sudden tension between Fordy and Kate? And who, really, is Celia, the beautiful photographer who drifts in and out of Oliver's life like a bewitching muse? As Olivia tries to trace a path through Village society (where everyone knows everyone else, and serial alliances and misalliances are so common that "It was like putting a light to a single match in a row of matches and watching one catch fire, then another, and another until the whole parcel was ablaze"), she finds herself rubbing elbows with an assortment of picturesque characters, from mobsters to authors. One of these charming individuals is a deadly threat--but which? The novel is refreshingly free of glaring anachronisms, and author Annette Meyers has obviously done her research on Village literary life in the '20s. But Meyers is no Fitzgerald, nor even a Michael Cunningham. Though the novel preens itself a trifle ostentatiously on its periodicity, tending toward heavy-handed references to the Great War, it fails to capture the poignantly fragile glamour of the era, with its heady whirlwind of flappers, expatriate authors, and jazz and its haunting legacy of trench warfare, poison gas, and dislocated modernity. As long as it doesn't try too hard, however, the Olivia Brown series is a perfectly pleasant diversion, as amusing as--and less rigorous than--the Charleston. --Kelly Flynn

Genres: Mystery, Historical, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Annette Meyers spent sixteen years on Wall Street as an executive search consultant, and is currently an arbitrator with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). She is a past president of Sisters in Crime and is secretary of the International Association of Crime Writers.

With her husband Martin Meyers, using the pseudonym Maan Meyers, she writes historical mysteries set in New York in the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries.

--from her website

Series:
* Smith and Wetzon Mystery
* Olivia Brown Mystery

Reviews

[Steph (loves water) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I liked the first one much better. As someone said previously, a lot of smoking, drinking, and not much work getting done. Romanticizing the Hudson Dusters is particularly annoying--that lot of violent, uneducated, sex-trafficking, drug using and pushing bunch babysitting a silly, spoiled girl? Hard to fathom. Glad she didn't write a third, I wouldn't read it anyway.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book after Free Love! I hope there will be more!!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this second installment in the Olivia Brown mystery series just as much as I did the first.

Olivia is once again up to her usual adventures and having a marvelous time. And after all, who wouldn't love a life filled with gin, poetry, and a host of attractive men - including notorious gangsters and bootleggers - who thing you're the best thing since sliced bread?

When the nanny of Olivia's friends ends up dead at a house party in the country that most of her friends are attending, Olivia naturally has to step in and help.

The drama quickly follows Olivia back to Greenwich Village and her daily life.

I absolutely love the characters in this series, especially Olivia! She is a renaissance woman if ever there was one. Fearless, independent, smart and sassy, she leaps first, and only occasionally bothers to look or consider the consequences. While she puts herself in danger at nearly every turn, her force of personality and almost pathological belief that things will turn out as she wishes them to make her come across as spunky rather than foolish. It just rarely occurs to Olivia that things won't go as she expects they will, and it's hard not to fall as in love with her as all the men, and even some of the women, in the book do.

The supporting characters are also wonderful, and offer a delightful view of the people of Greenwich Village during the Prohibition era. This was a moment in time, and a slice of life that I have always found fascinating, and the author Annette Meyers brings it to life fully in every detail.

The murder mystery held my attention, although I confess that I rarely try to figure out whodunit before the solution is revealed. I prefer to go along with the characters as they discover whom the culprit was. But I thought that the plot was well constructed, with plenty of clues - looking back - to allow those who DO want to try to beat the characters to the solution to be able to do so.

If you like strong, quirky female characters, period murder mysteries, or the 1920s as an era, I recommend this series highly!

[Cheryl Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first Olivia Brown mystery, "Free Love," was a wonderful period piece, nicely plotted with winning characters.

Then, this. I was very disappointed with what I can only describe as the author's struggle to maintain what had been so beautifully established in the first book.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt this way, as there has not been a third Olivia Brown mystery. It's possible that Annette Meyers was more devoted to her popular Smith and Wetzon mystery series.

Still, the time period is fascinating and Oliva Brown is a great character. I would like to have had at least one more installment to try, just to see Olivia Brown get back on her feet, so to speak.

[Luseride · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first introduction I have had to Olivia Brown and at times I like her, most of the time she strikes me as drunken slut that will sleep with anyone.


Set in the Bohemian community of Greenwich Village during Prohibition little work is completed by anyone but a lot of gin is consumed. Miss Brown is a poet, of some reckoning, that has a taste for drink. The story opens and ends with drinking and in between is a murder, some mystery, cops, robbers, thugs, and gangs.


The writing is good, I just have no love of the characters.


I finished it six months after I bought it if that says anything about my feelings

[Carol Kroger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think I was going to like this book, Murder Me Now by Annette Meyers, as it started out a little slow. But then it just took off. I enjoyed the setting of NYC and Westchester County. The character of Olivia Brown is someone I could relate to if I lived during that time period. I totally enjoyed this story and would read another Olivia Brown Mystery.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look like there aer only 2 books in this series- wish there were more Prohibition era Grenwich Village NYC poet Plivia Brown (Oliver) goes away for a weekend visit and the nany is found dead who was she?

[Sally Koslow]

In Murder Me Now Annettte Meyers had captured Prohibition-era Bohemian life with considerable charm. I loved the way she intermingled real and fictitious characters. Looking forward to reading more of Meyers' work. No wonder she's beloved in mystery circles.

[Donna Siebold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as interesting as I had hoped, the time period (20s) did not ring true to me.

[Jjean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if you like to read stories about era.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

good historical mystery series ...