O' Artful Death

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Debut Mystery
Review: College professor Sweeney St. George is looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas break alone in her apartment. But when her friend Toby shows her a picture of a unique gravestone near his aunt and uncle, she can't resist investigating. After all, it'll make a perfect chapter in her book on gravestones of New England.

The stone is located in an artist's colony in Vermont dating back to the late 1800's. Rumor is that the young woman immortalized by that stone was murdered by one of the artists, but no arrests were ever made.

Even before Sweeney arrives, the woman's great-niece is murdered. Ruth Kimball told Sweeney on the phone about the rumors. Is there a connection between the gravestone, the mysterious death of 115 years ago, and the murder today? If Sweeney wants the truth about this unique stone, she'll have to find out.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book when I first heard about it, but put off getting it. That was a mistake. This is a wonderfully written debut. The descriptions make the colony come to vivid life. The style is relaxed, inviting you to sit back and enjoy. I did have problems keeping all the character and the relations to those from the past straight, but with some work I was able to figure it all out. The plot was wonderful, giving us new information but keeping us in the dark until the end with plenty of clues and red herrings sprinkled throughout the book.

I've fallen under the spell of this author and series. I can't wait for the next book to come out. I highly recommend you pick up this excellent debut today.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Debut Mystery
Review: College professor Sweeney St. George is looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas break alone in her apartment. But when her friend Toby shows her a picture of a unique gravestone near his aunt and uncle, she can't resist investigating. After all, it'll make a perfect chapter in her book on gravestones of New England.

The stone is located in an artist's colony in Vermont dating back to the late 1800's. Rumor is that the young woman immortalized by that stone was murdered by one of the artists, but no arrests were ever made.

Even before Sweeney arrives, the woman's great-niece is murdered. Ruth Kimball told Sweeney on the phone about the rumors. Is there a connection between the gravestone, the mysterious death of 115 years ago, and the murder today? If Sweeney wants the truth about this unique stone, she'll have to find out.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book when I first heard about it, but put off getting it. That was a mistake. This is a wonderfully written debut. The descriptions make the colony come to vivid life. The style is relaxed, inviting you to sit back and enjoy. I did have problems keeping all the character and the relations to those from the past straight, but with some work I was able to figure it all out. The plot was wonderful, giving us new information but keeping us in the dark until the end with plenty of clues and red herrings sprinkled throughout the book.

I've fallen under the spell of this author and series. I can't wait for the next book to come out. I highly recommend you pick up this excellent debut today.

Rating:
Summary: Just okay
Review: Having read both The Da Vinci Code and O' Artful Death in recent weeks, I cannot recommend the latter highly enough to those who devoured the former. While both authors deftly employ Harvard professor protagonists to guide their readers through the intricacies of art-history-laced murder mysteries, Sarah Stewart Taylor far more gracefully marshals her well-researched facts. Where Robert Langdon lectured, Sweeney St. George inspired. I look forward to more from this promising new author.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and gripping thriller!
Review: Having read both The Da Vinci Code and O' Artful Death in recent weeks, I cannot recommend the latter highly enough to those who devoured the former. While both authors deftly employ Harvard professor protagonists to guide their readers through the intricacies of art-history-laced murder mysteries, Sarah Stewart Taylor far more gracefully marshals her well-researched facts. Where Robert Langdon lectured, Sweeney St. George inspired. I look forward to more from this promising new author.

Rating:
Summary: Good writing is a pleasure to read
Review: I don't favor a particular genre, I just favor good writing and it's especially delightful to read such terrific writing by a new novelist. Sarah Stewart Taylor doesn't just give us a twisting, puzzling plot, she gives us art, poetry, and an ability to cast a sentence, a paragraph, a scene, a whole story so perfectly that it's just not possible to stop reading it. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and the main character, Sweeney St. George is someone I am looking forward to seeing more of. This mystery is really top notch--in writing, in story, and in mystery!

Rating:
Summary: Great page turner
Review: Loved this book! Took it along for a July 4th holiday trip back East and it's major flaw was that it was over so fast! I couldn't put it down until I found out Whodunnit. I grew up in the area Taylor describes, and she did an accurate, nuanced job of transporting the reader to that beautiful place. I recently read The DaVinci Code and Taylor's book was just as fun in terms of learning about arcane facets of our world which always were there (tombstone making is a 'fashion industry' which changes over the centuries), but most of us never take the time to notice or consider. Hope Taylor writes more!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant first mystery
Review: Sarah Stewart Taylor has written a first mystery novel that gives promise of her achieving the level of P.D. James. O'Artful Death is has all the components of excellent mystery fiction as well as being first rate literature.Readers will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: A skillfully managed mystery
Review: Sarah Stewart Taylor's O'Artful Death is a skillfully managed mystery -- several mysteries, in fact. Discovering secrets of a Vermont community's past and present, protagonist Sweeney St. George seeks the truth with an art historian's passion for research and a detective's willingness to ask difficult questions. What's more, Sweeney is likeable, smart, and I enjoyed getting to know her. I look forward to spending more time with Sweeney when Taylor provides her with what I'm sure will be another engrossing adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: The story moves well, the characters are likeable, and the ending while not a total shock, is not evident until very close to the end. A very enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe this is a maiden voyage!
Review: This is such a good book, particulary if you like details that can only be found in graveyards. Sweeney St. George has the kind of bull dog determination you would want of someone who's unravelling a mystery dating back over 100 years. Her knowledge and intuition on all things relating to death and mourning rituals are invaluable in solving the multiple mysteries that pop up in this book. The are surprises around every corner. It's hard to believe that this is a first book for Sarah Stewart Taylor. Her talent is our good fortune in this first of what I hope will be many Sweeney St. George books.