Final Closing

Chesapeake Bay mysteries #2

by Barbara Lee

When female real-estate agents begin receiving threatening, sexually explicit phone calls and then Rose Macklin, one of the agents, is found bludgeoned to death, fellow agent Eve Elliot realizes that she had better start looking for the killer

Genres: Mystery

276 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

A clockwork thriller that manages to make it to the end without too many of the classic 'female lead in danger' cliches, but it sure does have a hefty share of sexxxxxxxxyyy male protector types who just sort of show up and be protective.
The essential problem with this novel is that it spends way too much effort chasing its primary agenda of getting our hero Eve into a new life and a nice lasting relationship with Mr. Right, and not nearly enough on building a credible murder tale. The novel then doubles down on this error by having Eve fret repeatedly over the end of her blah casual bridge relationship with the unsuitable boy next door while being totally oblivious to the awesome guy who is clearly going out of his way to hook up with her. Mix into this a lot of other low stakes personal issues about career choices, her aunt, the dogs, her housing situation and you come up with 87% of the novel which kind of reads like this:

As Eve drove to the next house, late as usual, she thought about the sex with Will the night before and how clearly it was over between them. As she pulled into the quaint little cove she spied the waterfront property and immediately felt unexpectedly hungry. She did a three point turn and made her way two blocks to the local diner. Licking her ice cream while driving, she wondered if she should buy her house, since the deadline to make a decision was coming fast. Did she want to live in this quaint and friendly place? Could she leave her aunt? As she pulled into the driveway of the house her pager buzzed. She waved to the person flagged as a potential murderer/sex predator several chapters back standing in the driveway, and read the message in the pager window reminding her of her date with Mr Wonderful for that evening.

This is then followed by action that deflates any tension but demonstrates that the police investigation is contributing nothing to solving any of the crimes in Anne Arundal County. The characters are bland to the point where I can't really tell them apart, except for the murderer. Spotted that one a mile off, like from the page they were introduced.
Really not worth it, but it meets the bar of readable.

By the way, in case you were confused, this novel was NOT written by the California Congressional Representative Barbara Lee.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone is killing realtor's in Maryland. First the obscene calls started then the killing. Eve is scare but she is caught up in the middle of it. So she decides to follow some clues she stumbles onto. And she find the killer before she becomes a victim. This is enjoyable and a fast read. Keeps you interested.

[Sally Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, fast read! Made me want to read the first in the series. I will definitely add the rest of the series to my list.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been at least two real estate agents murdered in our general area over the last few years so the premise of this was certainly believable to me. My father was a real estate agent for a number of years so I am roughly familiar with the practices, although in B.C. not in the States. The whole novel made so much sense to me: the fear, the suggested precautions, defenses and, finally, the reasons people ignore the warnings "this time". There was a book previous to this, in which the characters were introduced, but it's not necessary to have read it since background is provided and the action of this book provides motivation. The characters are very well portrayed and I like Eve's Aunt Lillian, who is generally so sensible. There are characters who seem a little strange and whose actions leave one puzzling, but they aren't always the guilty parties, so you can't go by that. Eve's tenant/lover is sometimes odd, but it may be his age, his occupation, or his liking for marijuana. The minister is 'creepy', Eve says, and he is certainly portrayed that way. He seems not to have listened carefully enough at seminary about physical contact, or he is extremely insecure in his profession. I really enjoyed the book and it entertained me on the first two days of our mini vacation.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takes place in Anne Arundel County.
Where is Greek diner?
Eve Elliot was ad exec in NYC, divorce, move to Anne Arundel to be near aunt who is in real estate.
2 agents are murdered. Obscene phone calls.
Good story.
Local Maryland author.

[Bobbie Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in the series. I didn't know that when I started reading it but it didn't keep me from understanding what was going on. It was a good fast and suspensful read