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Charlie Greene #3
Murder in a Hot Flash
A horror film director gets the ax--literally--and the menopausal mother of Hollywood agent Charlie Green becomes the prime murder suspect. To clear her mom's name, Charlie teams up with hunky movie star, Mitch Hilsten. Soon the two sleuths are forced to deal with wild river boat rides, cliff-hanging--and even more dead bodies. Can they find the killer? "Charlie's best outing yet."--Kirkus Reviews
- GenresMystery
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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84 people want to read
About the author
Marlys Millhiser
22 books114 followersMarlys Millhiser is an American author of fifteen mysteries and horror novels. Born in Charles City, Iowa, Millhiser originally worked as a high school teacher. She has served as a regional vice president of the Mystery Writers of America and is best known for her novel The Mirror and for the Charlie Greene Mysteries. Millhiser lived in Boulder, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 21, 2025
Murder in a Hot Flash by Marlys Millhiser is the third book of the Charlie Greene mystery series set in contemporary Utah. Charlie reluctantly travels (from LA) to a documentary filming in the Moab Desert, where her mother Edwina is the biology expert advisor. Charlie notices Edwina is bitchier than usual, but never gets a chance to find out why. Edwina is arrested and jailed for a murder committed with her ax. Charlie sticks around (although Edwina rejects her help) to figure out the real killer.
The setting is harsh. There are plenty of suspects, including another film crew nearby shooting an alien landing horror film. Wild animals are behaving strangely, which annoys Edwina, who blames the horror film crew for disrupting their habitat. There is no obvious motive, so the police assume Edwina killed due to menopause (!).
When an 'accidental' death occurs, Charlie is convinced it's no accident. She goes on a river boat excursion with all the likely suspects, hoping to learn enough about the men to ID the killer. When the boat excursion turns deadly, Charlie escapes (with a hunky movie star) across the desert.
Delete the rehash that Charlie was an unwed mother at 16, who now jumps into bed with a movie star; instead focus on the deadly boat ride and flight across the desert, maybe it could be a B-flick.
I recommend: read the author's The Mirror instead, which is spectacular.
The setting is harsh. There are plenty of suspects, including another film crew nearby shooting an alien landing horror film. Wild animals are behaving strangely, which annoys Edwina, who blames the horror film crew for disrupting their habitat. There is no obvious motive, so the police assume Edwina killed due to menopause (!).
When an 'accidental' death occurs, Charlie is convinced it's no accident. She goes on a river boat excursion with all the likely suspects, hoping to learn enough about the men to ID the killer. When the boat excursion turns deadly, Charlie escapes (with a hunky movie star) across the desert.
Delete the rehash that Charlie was an unwed mother at 16, who now jumps into bed with a movie star; instead focus on the deadly boat ride and flight across the desert, maybe it could be a B-flick.
I recommend: read the author's The Mirror instead, which is spectacular.
Read
January 18, 2016This was an okay reread, but nothing special. The reluctant sleuth, Charlie, finds herself in the position of needing to clear her biologist mother of murder charges, although her mother not only hasn't forgiven her for getting pregnant at 16 (about 16 years earlier!) but has annoyed everyone around her into thinking her a likely killer.
I had a few bones to pick--things that really seemed problematic despite not impeding the story. First off, the title and various exchanges by the characters indicate that Charlie's mother could be unstable due to menopause, and Charlie asks her several times if she's stopped taking her hormones. While people experience menopause in a variety of ways (it makes some people more disagreeable), Edwina is shown as someone who surely must be done with menopause. The people who are working with her are stunned to hear that she's about 57 because they perceive her as being decades older. Most women go through menopause around 50 and even when the process is complete, it takes most well-nourished, healthy women today (even those not taking hormone replacements) years more to look much different than they did before. Menopause does not appear to be Edwina's problem, but we never learn what actually has made her bitchier than before (so that Charlie thinks she's had a personality change) or look like a crone instead of a middle-aged biology professor.
Similarly, all throughout the book, wild animals behave bizarrely, causing everyone to wonder why, whether their theory involves pollutants or UFOs. This is never resolved.
These things irked me somewhat as I read but irk me more now as they were just left hanging. I suppose they may be answered in a subsequent book, but I'm not feeling inclined to find out.
I had a few bones to pick--things that really seemed problematic despite not impeding the story. First off, the title and various exchanges by the characters indicate that Charlie's mother could be unstable due to menopause, and Charlie asks her several times if she's stopped taking her hormones. While people experience menopause in a variety of ways (it makes some people more disagreeable), Edwina is shown as someone who surely must be done with menopause. The people who are working with her are stunned to hear that she's about 57 because they perceive her as being decades older. Most women go through menopause around 50 and even when the process is complete, it takes most well-nourished, healthy women today (even those not taking hormone replacements) years more to look much different than they did before. Menopause does not appear to be Edwina's problem, but we never learn what actually has made her bitchier than before (so that Charlie thinks she's had a personality change) or look like a crone instead of a middle-aged biology professor.
Similarly, all throughout the book, wild animals behave bizarrely, causing everyone to wonder why, whether their theory involves pollutants or UFOs. This is never resolved.
These things irked me somewhat as I read but irk me more now as they were just left hanging. I suppose they may be answered in a subsequent book, but I'm not feeling inclined to find out.
September 25, 2015
OK - I'm done with her books. Charlie Greene just keeps on taking crap from her mother and is afraid of her own daughter.
Her books need better editing - hard to read sentences keep interrupting the flow.
Her books need better editing - hard to read sentences keep interrupting the flow.
July 27, 2012
Eh.....it was okay. Kind of needed a break from the rather large book I was reading.
September 29, 2012
Wouldn't stay up late to read it, but okay. A bit uneven in the pacing, at times felt more like a romance than a mystery.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews