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Nine Muses #2
Slightly Abridged
There's nothing like murder to cure a case of writer's block.
Regency romance writer Juliet Bodine is falling into despair. Instead of writing, she spends her days staring at the pages of her unfinished novel, fantasizing about her inevitable failure. So the arrival of an eighty-four-year-old fan with a trove of yellowing papers to show is a welcome diversion instead of the nuisance it might have been.
Demanding, outspoken, stylish, outrageous, and still dripping with sexual flair, Ada Caffrey is everything Juliet is not. But Juliet's bemused delight in her eccentric visitor changes to electric shock when she realizes Ada has stumbled upon a suppressed fragment of the blockbuster memoirs of Harriette Wilson, Regency England's wittiest, most notorious courtesan. One week later, Ada is dead and the manuscript is gone. Could a two-hundred-old sexual indiscretion be worth killing for? In Slightly Abridged, the second installment in Ellen Pall's Nine Muses mystery series, Juliet teams up with NYPD detective Murray Landis to find out.
Regency romance writer Juliet Bodine is falling into despair. Instead of writing, she spends her days staring at the pages of her unfinished novel, fantasizing about her inevitable failure. So the arrival of an eighty-four-year-old fan with a trove of yellowing papers to show is a welcome diversion instead of the nuisance it might have been.
Demanding, outspoken, stylish, outrageous, and still dripping with sexual flair, Ada Caffrey is everything Juliet is not. But Juliet's bemused delight in her eccentric visitor changes to electric shock when she realizes Ada has stumbled upon a suppressed fragment of the blockbuster memoirs of Harriette Wilson, Regency England's wittiest, most notorious courtesan. One week later, Ada is dead and the manuscript is gone. Could a two-hundred-old sexual indiscretion be worth killing for? In Slightly Abridged, the second installment in Ellen Pall's Nine Muses mystery series, Juliet teams up with NYPD detective Murray Landis to find out.
- GenresMystery
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 10, 2023
When an elderly, somewhat eccentric, fan of her books is murdered after visiting her and trying to sell what might be a valuable manuscript to an a rare manuscript dealer, Juliet Bodine feels she must investigate if only to keep the police from accusing her friend of the murder. Detective Landis assists and accompanies Juliet to the tiny New York village where the victim lived and together they work to solve the crime. Interesting characters and a peep into an author’s writing process.
August 25, 2020
Really enjoyed this mystery (I haven’t tended to read many of those). I do wish Ellen Pall would continue her once planned “Nine Muses” series, but I read that she had decided to end it after this and the earlier CORPSE DE BALLET, due to feelings about the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks. A shame, as I really enjoyed her characters in both those books.
July 18, 2016
I was looking for something to pass the time this weekend by going over some of my Goodreads reviews and saw that I sort of liked one of Ellen Pall's mysteries. Luckily, there was one available in the same series.
Regular readers (hahaha!) of my reviews know how I feel about Romance. The main character is a Regency Romance author. Coincidentally, this was one of my late sister's favorite genres. They were short and could be read in an afternoon. What Juliet Bodine puts into hers sounds meatier. She apparently tries to accurately portray the period and perhaps a person could learn something from reading them. This would make them acceptable.
I don't know what I have against Romance ... as a genre. It makes me feel icky and also makes me want to shout at the characters.
At least I didn't shout at Juliet and her pet NYPD detective, Murray Landis, but I was starting to grizzle a bit as she became awkward over the relationship. I know, I know - it's the sexual tension that makes things interesting and the rocky road is to be desired over the boring, smooth road. It's just that some characters need a good slapping.
Mystery-wise, this did pretty well. Juliet eventually allows a long-time fan to visit and the person turns out to be completely different from what she expected. At first Ada Caffrey is mostly a delightful surprise, but eventually turns out to be a burden. And then she goes and gets herself killed. For a change (as far as I can tell, having only read two of the series), Juliet actually becomes a suspect. Landis cannot handle the case (officially, anyway) because of their relationship, which had not yet even blossomed into anything interesting at that point.
Juliet's changing relationship with Dennis, the rare book expert, was handled well. She was unable to put her finger on what made her uneasy about him, but eventually it became clearer.
What made me keep putting the book down was that it brought back more memories of my time in Manhattan (and upstate NY, where I'm from) than the Corpse de Ballet story. That and the recent release of the new "Ghostbusters" movie brought all that flooding back to me. I was in Manhattan when they were filming the original on location and when the movie was released. [By the way, I enjoyed the new one. Nothing will replace the original, but this was a lot of fun. In fact, I think it would have been just as good without the cameos - well, except for Mr. Stay-Puft.] I kept thinking I should be writing about my time in NY or someone's time in NY and composing bits in my head.
Regular readers (hahaha!) of my reviews know how I feel about Romance. The main character is a Regency Romance author. Coincidentally, this was one of my late sister's favorite genres. They were short and could be read in an afternoon. What Juliet Bodine puts into hers sounds meatier. She apparently tries to accurately portray the period and perhaps a person could learn something from reading them. This would make them acceptable.
I don't know what I have against Romance ... as a genre. It makes me feel icky and also makes me want to shout at the characters.
At least I didn't shout at Juliet and her pet NYPD detective, Murray Landis, but I was starting to grizzle a bit as she became awkward over the relationship. I know, I know - it's the sexual tension that makes things interesting and the rocky road is to be desired over the boring, smooth road. It's just that some characters need a good slapping.
Mystery-wise, this did pretty well. Juliet eventually allows a long-time fan to visit and the person turns out to be completely different from what she expected. At first Ada Caffrey is mostly a delightful surprise, but eventually turns out to be a burden. And then she goes and gets herself killed. For a change (as far as I can tell, having only read two of the series), Juliet actually becomes a suspect. Landis cannot handle the case (officially, anyway) because of their relationship, which had not yet even blossomed into anything interesting at that point.
Juliet's changing relationship with Dennis, the rare book expert, was handled well. She was unable to put her finger on what made her uneasy about him, but eventually it became clearer.
What made me keep putting the book down was that it brought back more memories of my time in Manhattan (and upstate NY, where I'm from) than the Corpse de Ballet story. That and the recent release of the new "Ghostbusters" movie brought all that flooding back to me. I was in Manhattan when they were filming the original on location and when the movie was released. [By the way, I enjoyed the new one. Nothing will replace the original, but this was a lot of fun. In fact, I think it would have been just as good without the cameos - well, except for Mr. Stay-Puft.] I kept thinking I should be writing about my time in NY or someone's time in NY and composing bits in my head.
December 24, 2015
Romance writer Juliet Bodine has a visit from an elderly fan, Ada Caffrey. But Ada isn't the dowdy older lady Juliet expected--she's still ready to kick up her heels at 84, and willing and able to manipulate people into doing what she wants. And now she wants to sell a few pages of manuscript she found that seem to be a lost section of Harriette Wilson's memoirs. Too bad that Ada is murdered before she can get her hands on the money. Since Juliet is a suspect, she calls her old friend Murray Landis, a New York policeman, to help her clear her name. It's really said that only two of the novels in Pall's proposed nine muses series was ever published.
June 6, 2010
A famous romance novelist connects with a fan who happens to have found part of a possibly significant historical manuscript. She brings it to the author in New York. The fan is killed and the manuscript goes missing.
I'm really not sure how to describe this book other than as amateurishly written. The odd narrative choices are just too distracting. The characters aren't realistic or interesting and the pacing was incredibly sluggish.
I'm really not sure how to describe this book other than as amateurishly written. The odd narrative choices are just too distracting. The characters aren't realistic or interesting and the pacing was incredibly sluggish.
Did not finish
March 27, 2010Maybe I'm just cranky, this being the second book in a row that I gave up on. This one is about a romance writer whose elderly fan brought her a document that might be historically significant, but then the fan ends up murdered. Neither the mystery nor the romance in this book grabbed me (which is ironic since the main character, the writer, is writing a romance novel that doesn't go anywhere).
April 29, 2007
Please do not waste your time with this.
I just happened to buy it cause it was cheap.
I just happened to buy it cause it was cheap.
April 4, 2010
Enjoyable, light murder mystery. It does not dwell on the Murder or other violence.
January 5, 2016
Okay, I liked the mystery but like more character romance I guess.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews