Rating: 
Summary: Murder in the elite crowd
Review: Nora's parents left the country to evade their taxes. Her sister Emma got the family art collection. Her other sister Libby got the furniture. Nora got the land and a property tax bill for two million dollars.To help pay this tax bill, Nora has gotten a job as a society page columnist for a Philadelphia paper. She knows many of the city's elite and fits right in at the parties. Then at her first party , she finds the host -- a millionaire art collector and old family friend, Rory, -- murdered. Detective Bloom suspects Peach, Rory's longtime companion. Nora is determined to find out who the real killer is. She doesn't think it can be Peach. Michael Abruzzo, son of a rumored New Jersey crime boss, has bought 5 acres Nora sold off to help pay her taxes. He built a car lot. This land is adjacent to her family farm. Her younger sister Libby shows up with her four children to protest at his grand opening. Nora is there to cover it for the paper. As Nora begins to investigate, Libby is nowhere to be found. Emma begins to help Nora, then she goes missing. Nora is disgusted with her flighty sisters. Michael, who is interested in Nora and lets her know, helps her look into the murder. He has friends that Nora isn't sure she wants to be acquainted with. This is the first book I have read by this author, but I look forward to reading more in this series. I believe this is the first book. The second one is coming out in June 2003. I hope Michael will be in all of the upcoming books. The relationship of Nora and Michael is interesting. I also look forward to getting to know her two sisters better as well. Nancy has developed good characters and a great setting. Her plot was also very well written. This looks to be a great series.
Rating: 
Summary: I hate to disagree, but . . .
Review: Obviously everyone else who's read and reviewed this book loved it, so I hate to disagree, but I hated it. Poorly written, disagreeable characters, total absence of description, lack of local color, just plain bad. I lived near Philadelphia for a couple of years so I was looking forward to revisiting old haunts, but I was very disappointed. I only got through about half the book and threw it across the room in disgust. I will cretianly not be getting any more of this series.
Rating:
Summary: A fun mystery
Review: Set in the upper echelons of Pennsylvania society, and written in the first person, the story follows Nora Blackbird as she searches for the killer of her millionaire boss and family friend. Recently penniless (her parents move to a resort that caters to tax evaders, leaving her with the family estate and a two million dollar tax bill), Nora must find her sisters, who disappear, complete her job as a society page columnist, and resist the charms of a mobster's gorgeous son. Although I found the motive for the murder far-fetched, and some of the other key characters a little underdeveloped, the character of Nora is refreshingly real and relatable. The plot moves along at a good pace, and ending wraps up the story quite well. A pleasure to read, and I look forward to the next books (this is the first in the "Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series").
Rating: 
Summary: Promising Debut
Review: The Blackbird family heirlooms have been divided up, with each of the sisters getting something of value. Nora received the family farm just outside Philadelphia. Unfortunately, with it comes a huge tax debt. So Nora does what any young woman would do, she takes a job as a society reporter for a local paper.
Nora has connections with the owner of the paper, which makes her new co-worker furious. But that's minor after Nora finds the dead body of the owner. Even with Rory's advanced age, the police quickly find evidence of murder. When they start looking in what Nora feels is the wrong direction, she decides to investigate and find the real killer herself. The more she pokes around, the more Nora learns about Rory's secret life and the more motives she finds. Can she sort out the correct motive and solve the crime?
I've been hearing about this series for some time, and finally got a chance to read it. All the buzz I'd heard is well deserved. This is a fun mystery with a charming heroine. Her sisters are a hoot as well. I look forward to getting to know all of them better in future books. The story was well plotted and reached a logical conclusion. The ending did seem a bit rushed to me, however. My only other complaint is that Nora's reason for looking into this murder seemed a little shaky, but maybe I'm just being picky.
I'm looking forward to seeing what befalls Nora in her future adventures.
Rating:
Summary: Gossip & good writing on the Main Line
Review: The Blackbird Sisters are keepers -- well-developed, great relationships, memorable quirks & imperfections, and believable sibs. Good plot, intriguing second (and third) bananas,
a little romantic tension, plenty of humor, and a credible inside look at Philadelphia society.
Rating:
Summary: Meet the Blackbird Widows!
Review: The first book in the Blackbird Sisters mystery series introduces us to a sleek, yet unlucky sleuth trying to stay on the top of the social ladder. The narrator, Nora Blackbird, is a widow (her husband died in a drug deal gone bad) with a $2 million tax bill left to her by her free-spirited parents. When her parents left the country to avoid paying back taxes, Nora got the property (with the tax bill as an added bonus) and her two sisters got the furniture and the art collection. Swallowing her pride, Nora takes a job (albeit a swanky one) writing for the gossip/society page at one of Philadelphia's newspapers. She owes this cushy job to family friend and newspaper owner, Rory Penderghast. However, when she attends a party thrown to honor the newspaper and its lengthy history, she has the unfortunate honor of finding Rory dead in his room. Believing that he could have never killed himself, Nora is determined to find a killer and keep her family's good name in the process. Even though the premise of the series is a bit implausible, I loved this book about these hilarious sisters! They were plucky in the face of doom (how could you ever repay $2 million?) and were determined to triumph over the hard times in their lives. I was glad to see that Nora did not have a completely naïve attitude about money (she did wear her grandmother's evening gowns to parties) but there is something odd about a woman who acts nonchalantly about millions owed to the IRS. Nevertheless, I found this book fun and interesting, and would definitely recommend this book for a lighthearted, fun read. Enjoy! A Cozy Lover
Rating:
Summary: perfect escapist fun
Review: The perfect entertainment if you love a good mystery and love to laugh. How to Murder a Millionaire is a delight from start to finish. The herione, Nora is fabulous company, and the pacing is just right if you want to put your feet up at the end of a long day.
Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: This book was fun and worth the time and money. Will look foward to the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated.
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend who shares with me an interest in Jennifer Crusie. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book in the least. The characters seemed flat; I didn't find myself caring especially what happened to them. The plot also seemed rushed and the details in the book weren't written in a way that gave any sense of "visual" appeal. I am currently majoring in English, and I have seen fresher, more descriptive, and overall much better writing from my student contemporaries than was displayed in this particular novel. All in all, I was NOT impressed with this book. I will not be reading the rest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Must be the author who gave it 5 stars!
Review: This story is impossible to believe right from the beginning. First off, why would Nora (or anybody with any brains) accept a "gift" with a two-million tax lien on it? Secondly, I don't know how much money newspaper society columnists make where you live, but where I live, you'd have to do an awful lot of writing to make two million dollars. I thought this book would be a funny, fun, quirky mystery with some semblance of a plot. Instead it was just plain boring and contrived.
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