Wanting Sheila Dead

Gregor Demarkian #25

by Jane Haddam

Sheila Dunham is the, famously offensive host of America’s Next Superstar. Celebrity gossip columnists love her. The female contestants on her new reality television show? Not so much. On the first day of shooting, someone fires a gun at her…and misses her. But the woman arrested at the scene isn’t involved with the show—and no one knows how she even got past security. The house where the show’s being filmed belongs to the family of Bennis Hannaford, wife of Gregor Demarkian. A former FBI profiler, Gregor has no interest in getting involved in all this Sheila-shooting nonsense. Besides, he has other important business to attend The Very Old Ladies in his Armenian-American neighborhood are concerned about a stranger seen at the home of Sophie Mgrdchian, a Very Old Recluse…who is soon found fighting for her last breath. Meanwhile, , the filming of America’s Next Superstar is once again interrupted by gunfire—and this time, it’s fatal. But the victim is not Sheila Dunham. Yet.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Mystery Thriller

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Aka Orania Papazoglou

Jane Haddam (b. 1951) is an American author of mysteries. Born Orania Papazoglou, she worked as a college professor and magazine editor before publishing her Edgar Award–nominated first novel, Sweet, Savage Death, in 1984. This mystery introduced Patience McKenna, a sleuthing scribe who would go on to appear in four more books, including Wicked, Loving Murder (1985) and Rich, Radiant Slaughter (1988).

Not a Creature Was Stirring (1990) introduced Haddam’s best-known character, former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian. The series spans more than twenty novels, many of them holiday-themed, including Murder Superior (1993), Fountain of Death (1995), and Wanting Sheila Dead (2005). Haddam’s most recent novels are Blood in the Water (2012) and Hearts of Sand (2013). Wife of William L DeAndrea.

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanting Sheila Dead (Gregor Demarkian, #25) by Jane Haddam.

List this under my favorites. I love and am addicted to this series with no apologies.

Demarkian has been singled out by the 3 very old ladies on his street. They feel something is afoul at Sophie Mgrdchian's house. She's not answering her door when they've gone there although they have seen someone inside moving around. They use their persuasive ways to maneuver Demarkian into knocking on Sophie's door to find out if she really is all right. Demarkina does go to Sophie's home on Cavanaugh Street but does not find that everything is all right.
The 2nd mystery centers around a reality show known as America's Next Superstar. The producer is none other than Sheila Dunham. Sheila, a has been B actress who can't get hired anywhere, runs the show in a spectacular fashion. Her outrageous conduct brings in more fans than any other shows she's been fired at.
That all sounds rather commonplace in today's market that is until shots are fired at Sheila. The girl, one of the contestants, is arrested. However, things escalate when a body is discovered. The place where the body is discovered (& arranged) much like aq murder that Demarkian solved many years ago. What is the purpose behind that and who?

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally Gregor investigates a mystery at home - I have missed the characters on Cavanaugh Street for quite some time. A Very Old Lady is found in a coma at home with another batty old lady (mystery one) and a young woman is killed at Bennis's family home during the filming of a reality TV series (mystery two). The social commentary is gentler and less political than recent books in the series.
Very rarely have I read a book just after reading the "sneak peek" offered in the paperback - maybe I should start, just for a reminder of how much authors' works can change from draft to draft! The chapter of this book attached to the end of Living Witness has some of the same characters and setting of Wanting Sheila Dead, but the plot is completely different. I spent a lot of my reading time wondering if we were going to get to the theft of a necklace or identify a missing daughter, and that might have made me more critical of the loose ends than usual.

[Kyrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Gregor Demarkian mysteries, but they don't usually make me laugh out loud. This one did - twice. I am still snickering over the idea of dozens of hamsters in a person's mind.
The story revolves around the attempted murder of a reality show host. I liked the way it poked fun at the concept, even if I do watch some of the blasted things.
The minor plot has to do with the mystery of a little old lady in a coma and the woman who was living with her. That had some interesting twists to it.
I like Haddam's writing and I think she improves with each story. I like that she can fool me, even when I'm SURE I've figured out the whole story.

8/2/23 Story still is good, and I'd forgotten who did what, so it was still interesting. Didn't laugh out loud but was much more irritated at some of the contestants.

[Amelia in PDX · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read much in this series, but I have enjoyed what I've read. I have think of the hero as an aggravating Sherlock Holmes as you don't see all the clues until the end... or at least I haven't yet, and that is saying something. It is interesting how the hero, Gregor Demarkian, relies on his Armenian-American background for much of his deciphering of people's motives - much like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple does, but where Miss Marple talks about motives most of the time, Gregor doesn't - he does most of his explaining at the end.

The basis of this setting is a filming of a reality TV show where a girl with no immediate name is killed... I'll let you discover the rest for yourself.

[Ricki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A better title might have been, "Who Doesn't Want Sheila Dead?" There is a murder during the new season of her reality show...but trust Gregor Demarkian to figure it all out! Good read!

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably my least favorite Jane Haddam, but still better than a lot of mysteries out there!

[Katharine Kimbriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this ongoing mystery series with its quirky characters. Everyone seems within the realm of possibility, if not actually people living down the street from me. This volume was an experiment--I'd read the first seven or eight, and then jumped to this one, which is something like #25? I was able to figure out what was going on with old plot news, so it might be possible to hop into this series farther down the line.

One thing (at least in the volumes I've read) is that Haddam confines her POVs to Gregor Demarkian, the retired FBI profiler, and to new characters in the story. The only time I remember Bennis as a POV was when her family was involved in the murder mystery, when she first appeared in the series. Other reoccurring characters are from Gregor's POV. He's an interesting, complex and occasionally contradictory man, and I find that I'm glad to be back from my hiatus.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's trouble on Cavanaugh Street, as an elderly, reclusive Armenian widow disappears from sight and a strange woman is seen in her house. But Gregor Demarkian is distracted when his brother-in-law rents Bennis's ancestral home to a reality television show run by Sheila Dunham, who is going to bully fourteen impressionable teenaged girls until she finds America's next celebrity. When the shooting starts, everyone expects Sheila to be the victim, even Sheila. But that's not what happens. Demarkian gradually realizes that his cases, though not related, do have some things in common. While I'm not sure that Haddam does a great job differentiating all the teenagers, she does demonstrate how their desire for a meretricious fame can tear them apart.

[Mascanlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow I missed the last 2 Gregor Demarkian books, guess I was so relieved their wedding came off a year ago I forgot to look as the new ones were released. Bennis and Gregor are back from their honeymoon and starting to settle in when a murder in Bennis' family home takes them back to the first time they met, Gregor solving the murder of her Father. This time though the house is the scene of the latest reality show but no one knows who the victim is...was she a rejected contestant or is something else in the works? And one top of that an old woman in the neighborhood is catatonic and her caretaker is hiding something, can Gregor figure it all out in time?

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Demarkian book--with 2 actual mysteries. One is set on Cavanaugh Street and involves the suspicions of the Very Old Ladies regarding one of the residents, and the other concerns events surrounding a TV-reality show. Both mysteries unfolded in interesting ways...

Who is the woman who has suddenly appeared in the Cavanaugh Street home of an elderly woman with no family nearby, and why hasn't the elderly woman been seen lately?

And who is trying to kill 'Sheila', the TV-reality show host? [After you meet Sheila, you may wonder who wouldn't want to kill her...]

As usual, good characters, good background, and a solid story with everything revealed in the end.

[West Hartford Public Library · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uninteresting characters who I never cared about, slow, weird plot... But, it did keep me guessing about who done it till the end. This was my first book by this author and I doubt I'll read another.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lonely book that has been sitting on my shelf. This is my first Jane Haddam and never heard of Gregor Demarkian but I liked it. I will look for Kindle offers and it won't even have to be free.

[Lizzytish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this one more than some of the previous ones. There was humor in here that I don’t recall reading in other books. I meant to quote some of the hysterical decritions, but I sent the book back to the library. And then we have the Very Old Ladies who are a hoot. They are wondering why a neighbor is not answering their door even though a strange woman has moved in.
Haddam’s issue she is dealing with is reality TV and the contestants. Shelia is the host and a horrible person. Everyone would like to kill her. I wanted to kill her. However, whoever is shooting at her misses.

[Nicole Corali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read and kept my attention, but I wasn’t enraptured enough to want to finish it quickly. The “girls” on the show were utterly annoying, this was my first novel by Jane Haddam so I was impressed by the transitioning style from clever detective that solves two cases and a houseful of vain girls that I did not want to hear open their mouths. Overall it was okay but I couldn’t take large doses of the storyline centered around the reality show.

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like this book at all. The storyline started out good but there was so much repetition in the dialogue that it became boring. I stuck with it because I hoped it would get better but I would not recommend it.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Gregor Demarkian and Jane Haddam. This one was not my favorite...it took me more than 1/2 the book to even get into what was going on....and why they were connected....the 2 mysteries at once. I think there was a message somewhere...

[Regine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disjoint.

[Celeste Arms]

too many people in these books..with two story lines different people for both

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read half; skimmed last chapter. Made no sense. Includes very trivial events.

[Robin Jansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read

[Debi Van Horn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a little slow at first, but towards the end it came out as very good book

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

""

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sheila, host of a reality show, is famous for behaving horribly toward people. The anonymous young woman who shoots at Sheila during the beginning of her next reality season is so predictable that it's a shock when her gun turns out not to have been loaded. Death and detective work have to be accomplished among a group of young women isolated in a house full of live cameras.

Back in Gregor's neighborhood, one of the Very Old Ladies has a questionable Mildly Old Lady staying with her, until they are both packed off to the hospital. It's amazing what you can not know about someone you've lived in the same neighborhood with for eighty years.

These two cases scattered my attention because Gregor was going back and forth between them. Very unusually for Haddam, some of the girls in the isolated house weren't characterized strongly enough for me to keep their identities straight in my head. There were fourteen girls, and most of them were too vapid to make an impression on me. This tilted the interest strongly toward the people surrounding the girls, so to me the book felt out of balance.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun! Interesting structure for a mystery, characters who were memorable without being annoying, and the detective in it had just read some Agatha Christie novels so he kept talking about them and that was fun too.

This is #26 in a series, so maybe I should look into the rest of these Demarkian novels from Ms. Jane Haddam.

It was also focused on the set of a reality TV show, much like Deus Ex Machina, which I reviewed negatively recently. But while Deus Ex Machina took itself deadly seriously, this book was lighthearted while still managing to cleverly parody the reality TV genre. Also, this book was fun and that book was shite.

I'm only giving it three stars, however, because it was a murder mystery and not a work of art, and until I read some more of Haddam's work I don't know if I'll go rabid fan like I am for Christie, or if I'll end up thinking this is a one-off good book.

We'll see.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading this series, on and off, for years. It features Gregor Demarkian, a likable, smart, but somewhat bumbling ex-FBI agent. It's definitely a "cozy," set in the Armenian neighborhood of Philadelphia, with characters and relationships that reappear, grow, and become (the reader's) old friends. I saw the author speak at a mystery conference, 20-ish years ago, and liked her very much. In short, this is one of those series I slip into when I want to escape from it all. They are always well-written, but at times the plot meanders or stalls - I feel the want of a strict editor. Not that it will stop me from reading every one . . .

[Mysteryfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've liked Jane Haddam's books since she wrote as Orania Papazoglou. Somehow I missed this one when it first came out, so I was happy to read it. Gregor revisits the scene of the first book, where he met his wife Bennis. The more things change, the more they stay the .same. But now he's (finally) married to Bennis. The mystery centers around a reviled reality show host who is NOT murdered. There's a secondary story set on Cavanaugh Street.

It reads like a transitional book. There's the usual social issue, the scenes with Father Tibor and Donna, some extra interactions with the Very Old Ladies. It's a cozy with some sharp edges. All in all, a good entry in the series.

[Nancy]

Gregor and Bennis are back from their honeymoon. An old lady is found on the floor of her house with another old lady standing over her. Eventually, the unconscious woman recovers and the other old lady is charged with murder - she murdered the unconscious woman's sister-in-law.

Meanwhile, at Bennis's family home in Bryn Mawr a reality tv series is being filmed. A girl is killed there and eventually another girl - on the show - is found to be the murderer.

Bennis and Gregor buy the house of the formerly unconscious woman.

[Angela Britnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this mystery - another in the Gregor Demarkian series. It's set in Philadelphia and concerns two cases - the apparent poisoning of an elderly lady and the attempted murder of Sheila Dunham, a TV reality show host. Sheila is a particularly obnoxious character and it's easy to see why someone would want to murder her and you get an interesting perspective on the background to these shows. There are distinct hints of Agatha Christie in this story which I found interesting and overall it was a compelling story with lots of interesting characters.

[Ilyssa Wesche · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Jane Haddam, but this was my least favorite of the series. I get it - Gregor Demarkian is world-weary and spends a lot of time dithering. That's okay but there was a lot of time devoted to making that point. Perhaps Bennis and Gregor have jumped the shark? Too much time spent on character development? Whatever the case I felt that the mystery took a backseat to the ongoing story of Cavanaugh Street.

[Katherine Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haddam is one of my go to authors. When she has a new book, I purchase it. I just lent my mother the first 7 books in the series. I still love this series, but it is getting a bit predictable. Not in terms of figuring out who did the murder (though this is never why I read the books) but the characters. I'm not as in love with Gregor as I have been in the past.(Though I still love Tibor), but I'll keep reading.