The April Fools' Day Murder : A Christine Bennett Mystery

Rating:
Summary: A good puzzler
Review: Christine Bennett meets Willard Platt when her three-year-old son Eddie hits him with a shopping cart. Christine learns that Willard has filed many pesky lawsuits. Christine relates the incident to her spouse, New York City Detective Sergeant Jack Brooks, who also says that Willard is a disagreeable individual.

On April Fool's Day, a driving Christine sees a man lying on the ground. She finds Willard dead with a knife in his back, but that proves false because he is working with the high school drama club. However, later that same day someone kills Willard. That night, a driving Christine sees a woman walking on a lonely street. It turns out to be Willard's widow trekking a mile and a half to her son's house. Perhaps it is a vestige of her fifteen years in a monastery, many as a nun, but the Good Samaritan Christine takes the woman to her son's home. There, Christine witnesses the ultimate dysfunctional family, which raises Christine's curiosity and her concern for Willard's wife. She begins to investigate what happened to Willard.

Lee Harris' holiday murders are always a time to celebrate because they are typically among the year's best cozies. The latest tale, THE APRIL FOOLS' MURDER, is the usual well-written suburban mystery that hooks readers from start to finish as a seemingly innocent lamb of a plot turns into a roaring story line cozy-style. In her thirteenth appearance, Christine retains her freshness due to her caring nature and curiosity. Fans of the series will relish the newest entry while newcomers will know that the kudos bestowed on the Bennett novels are not April Fool's Day jokes.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Lee Harris makes even minor holidays FUN.....
Review: Christine Bennett, the Long Island housewife sleuth, finds a body lying in the front yard of a home just up the hill from her local nursery, where she has been shopping for a new tree. Sticking from the man's back is a knife. But when she calls the police to report the murder, she is informed that the whole thing was an elaborate April Fools' Day joke. No one is laughing a few hours later, though when the same man turns up dead --- stabbed to death in his garage.

Thus begins the newest mystery that draws Chris Bennett into the strange and complicated lives of the Platt family. Many people had reasons to dislike the patriarch, Willard Platt, for he had ruled with an unyielding hand and cared little that his unpleasant manner ruffeled many for nearly 50 years. Christine doesn't lack for suspects but she must uncover motives that nearly every member of the family would like to keep hidden.

As usual, she is certainly up to the task, for she has a logical way of collecting information that others overlook or dismiss as unimportant or of no signifigance.

I always enjoy seeing just what kind of twists and turns Ms. Harris will get up to with every new book. She keeps it plausable and still always surprises me. This is another good entry in the series.

Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER INCREDIBLY AWESOME CHRISTINE BENNETT NOVEL!
Review: Guess what everyone, Lee Harris is back with one of her best holiday murder mystery novels. "The April Fools Day Murder" was on my "Can't Wait To Read" list for six months, so I was very excited to get my hands on it. I belive it was probably her best one. Christine Bennett and her husband, Jack, are back along with Sister Joseph, to try and solve the murder of Willard Platt, an old grumpy man, who was credited for donating a lot of money to the local high school's drama department. Willard was found stabbed to death at his house by his own cane. Christine Bennett is greatly disturbed by this because she just saw this older man in the supermarket earlier that day and spoke with him. Christine starts to investigate. There are many suspects including, the local high school students who came over for an april fool's day hunt, Platt's mysterious son, Roger, and wife, Winnie, who claims she is deaf in one ear and the local nursery owner who wanted a piece of Platt's land. Christine is having a hard time determining who the killer is, so she returns to St. Stephens covenant and speaks with Sister Joseph for more insight. Can Christine Bennett determine who the killer is before she gets herself killed? This is an excellent novel of mystery and suspense that can easily be devoured in one sitting.

Rating:
Summary: This series has lost its steam
Review: I found it very difficult to get through this book. What began as a refreshing series about a former nun adapting to the secular world and unwittingly becoming caught up in murder investigations, has become boring, predictable, and unbelievable. In this book, I found that I didn't care who killed the victim or why. Chris takes it upon herself to investigate, which I found extremely far-fetched. How many wives and mothers have time to involve themselves in a murder case? There was no need for her to get involved here, and I found myself rooting for the people she interviewed. What makes her think she has any right to question people? She doesn't work for the police.This just doesn't ring true. The reader can't identify with these actions. In addition, the story reads almost like a journal in that all the minutiae of Chris' life are captured: her son takes a nap; he wakes up; he has a snack, etc. Who cares? Chris rarely shows any emotion, and her character even seems bored. For this series to continue, Chris needs to become more three-dimensional, and her involvement needs to be scaled back unless she finally decides to become a cop.

Rating:
Summary: A Little Uneven
Review: I have to say I agree somewhat with an earlier reviewer who stated that it is far-fetched to think that this woman (Chris, the heroine of the story) would be allowed constant access to the murder victim's family, asking them all manner of personal questions, when she is neither a cop nor a detective. I also find it far-fetched that her policeman husband would encourage her to go and talk to murder suspects, most often alone, but also taking her 3-year-old son along for the ride. What mom would put herself or her son in danger like that? The one thing I have to say I did like about this book is that, unlike certain other Lee Harris novels whose titles I will not mention at the risk of spoiling anything for other readers, is that at least the murderer was not first introduced to the readers on page 248 of a 250-page book!