Tagged for Murder

Rating:
Summary: Fun Mystery Mixes Murder and Antiques
Review: After fleeing from Manhattan to escape a failed marriage and rumored involvement in an fraud scheme, antique dealer Molly Doyle is settling into her new life in Carmel, California. She's turned Treasures, the shop she's running for a friend, from a hole-in-the-wall to a showpiece. The sleepy Carmel community is shocked by the apparent heart-attack death of local antique seller Trudy Collins while at an antique show. Molly has the bad luck to discover Trudy's body at the show ( this is the second dead body Molly has found since arriving in Carmel). When the autorities determine that Trudy's death is murder, Molly finds herself working with Sheriff Randall to find Trudy's killer.

"Tagged for Murder" was another well-plotted, fun read. Author Flinn has done a great job of making her characters multi-layered and believable. I really like the character of Bitsy, unfortunately Bitsy's character spent most of this book being sick in bed. I hope we'll see more of Bitsy in the next book!

Rating:
Summary: Another first-rate, entertaining tale from Flinn
Review: Antiques dealer Molly Doyle, the heroine of the delightful, award-winning debut Dealing in Murder, published last year, returns for another go-around in the shady and surprisingly dangerous world of objets d'art.

As Elaine Flinn's Tagged for Murder opens, Molly is rocked by the murder of Trudy Collins, a friend and fellow dealer. The more she learns about Trudy's life and death, the more Molly fears her friend wasn't the woman she thought she was.

Adding to her frustrations is the unexpected arrival of her 12-year-old niece, dumped on Molly by her irresponsible sister, who quickly disappears from the scene. Faced with trying to solve a murder, make her business a success, and muddle through as a surrogate mom, the resilient heroine has her hands more than full just trying to survive.

As with her first book, Flinn again demonstrates herself to be an author with a strong sense of story and a deliciously sly wit. Deftly avoiding the potential pitfalls of the cozy mystery, Tagged for Murder is another first-rate, entertaining tale.

Rating:
Summary: Elaine Flinn has done it again! Great cozy!
Review: Elaine Flinn has done it again. Another winner!

Molly Doyle is an antiques dealer in Carmel. Trudy Collins dies from an apparent heart attack at a local show.

One night Molly's sister Carrie, whom she hasn't seen or heard from in years, shows up at her place with her twelve-year-old daughter, Emma. A couple days later Carrie leaves Em with her. Soon it is discovered that she isn't coming back. At first Molly is shocked, but as she gets to know Em, she is delighted. She still finds it hard to always remember she has a child to keep an eye on, but overall she is enjoying it.

Kenneth Randall, chief of police, tells Molly that Trudy was murdered, but that he doesn't want very many people to know. They meet with Daria and Lucero, the D.A., at Daria's restaurant. She has a back room they can talk in. Daria has Emma taken to the kitchen to see how it works while they talk. Randall tells Molly to not do any investigating.

But, Molly can't help herself. Unbeknownst to Randall, she has Trudy's office paperwork and plans to look through it. Once she finds Carrie in some of the pictures, she has a real quandary. How can she turn this over to Randall, as she knows she must? She doesn't want him to know Carrie is involved until she can determine what exactly she is involved in.

Molly soon discovers that Trudy's antiques business was not all on the up and up. She worries Carrie may have been involved in that side of her business.

She must investigate but keep Emma safe. Not always easy to do.

This is a fantastic cozy series. Molly is such a likeable character. And now the addition of Emma is wonderful! I really like how they work together. Of course the tension is still there between Molly and Randall. Emma thinks they should get together. Not sure what Molly and Randall think yet.

Bitsy's role in this mystery is not as big, but she's still very much a part of the story. I really like her character a lot.

I highly recommend this book. It is the second in the series. You don't have to read the first to understand this one, but I do highly recommend you read it. They're both great.


Rating:
Summary: an excellent read
Review: Fans of Elaine Flinn's Molly Doyle mystery series rejoice: her latest antique-store mystery, "Tagged For Murder" was as engrossing, absorbing and enjoyable as her first book, "Dealing in Murder."

Molly Doyle, a New York transplant is beginning to feel completely at home in Carmel, Ca -- she's picked up the pieces of her life, adapted completely to the more low key pace here, found some good friends, and has completely recovered from her the murder investigation she had gotten entangled with, when (wouldn't you know it) she finds herself coming face to face with another unexpected death, this time that of friend and fellow antique's dealer, Trudy Collins. Found face down on her desk at the Carmel Antiques Show, everyone initially assumes that Trudy had suffered from a heart attack at the show. But Carmel's chief of police's, Kenneth Randall, behaviour makes Molly believe that there is something more to Trudy's death. However, the unexpected appearance of her deceitful long-estranged younger sister, Carrie, soon distracts Molly from the mystery of Trudy's death. Especially when Carrie saddles Molly (permanently) with her 12 year old daughter, Emma, and disappears. Struggling to absorb the latest change in her life, and to ensure that no lasting damage has been done to her clever and sweet natured niece, Molly's composure takes a further knock when she makes the discovery that Carrie knew Trudy and that they were both involved in something shady. Should Molly share her fears with good friend police chief Randall? Or should she try to figure out exactly what Carrie and Trudy were involved in and to try cover Carrie's tracks for Emma's sake? Torn between protecting her sister and doing the right thing, Molly soon finds herself neck deep in murder once again, and dodging yet another determined killer...

Once I started "Tagged For Murder" I simply had to finish it in one go -- it was that engaging and absorbing. Tautly paced and with quite a few interesting plot twists, I was happily engrossed from beginning to end. The storyline was a very intriguing and interesting one, and Ms Flinn's brilliant and believable character portrayals added to the overall excellence of the novel. And adding to the overall enjoyment to the book, was the wonderful manner in which the authour painted in the quiet charms of Carmel. My advice, if you enjoy absorbing and quiet cozies, that is, is to unplug the 'phone and settle into your favourite chair, "Tagged For Murder" is a read to be savoured and enjoyed without interruption.

Rating:
Summary: promising
Review: I enjoyed this book, although I also thought it awkward in places. But will definitely look for more.
Problems:
(1) grammar: there were a lot of jolting dangling participles. Please have a good editor eliminate these next time! I do not consider this trivial, because the flow of the narrative is badly interrupted by these things.
(2)awkwardness: In places, there is a failure to deal with details that harms the "genuineness" of the atmosphere. It nagged at me that Emma was not in school. You don't just keep kids out of school for months on end. Was it summer? I couldn't find a season reference anywhere.
(3) the so-called "teasing" between the heroine and randall. These exchanges "read" to me as hostile and dismissive. If I were a dealer and someone constantly called me a rip-off artist, I don't think I would view it as teasing. How could anyone like this guy?
(4) Heroine's waiting to give evidence to police. COME ON!! Her excuse was not believable.
(5) Sister Carrie: cannot understand why she is not in jail

Good Things:
continuously entertaining
for the most part, engaging characters (see above), and interesting family background.
antiques lore
california ambiance

Rating:
Summary: Great book!!
Review: I loved this book even more than the first. Emma is a wonderful addition, and I hope my daughter-to-be is just like her! The antiques info was a treat as well - Ms. Flinn really knows her stuff. Please keep them coming - can't wait for the next one!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Mystery
Review: I wondered how Elaine Flinn could possibly top her first book, the multi-award nominated, Dealing in Murder, but she's done it. I just flew through Tagged for Murder. The characters are rich (you'll hate her sister!) and so well textured that they jump off the pages. The book flows so fast that you can't put it down. The writing is first rate, and the story is another home run. Elaine has really established herself as one of the leading authors in the mystery field. You'll love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Very good!
Review: Molly Doyle is an antique dealer who owns a store in California. When one of her friends is murdered, Molly is determined to find out why. But, out of the blue, her sister shows up with her twelve-year-old daughter, Emma. Then the sister disappears, leaving Emma behind. Then another murder occurs.

**** This is a very well written book. It involves so many characters at one time that I found it hard to keep track of them all. I found the antiques and other rarities a treat to read about. This mystery kept me intrigued the entire time. I find myself looking forward to the author's next release. ****

Reviewed by D. Wilson.

Rating:
Summary: I think I liked this one better than the first in the series
Review: Some of the things that bothered me about the first book were gone (less snobbishness, and Molly, the main character, is at least TRYING to quit smoking!). The addition of some new characters livened up the book, and the writing seems more polished.

The plot involves series "detective" Molly Doyle, an antiques dealer fallen on bad times through no fault of her own (but let's face it, how bad can running an antique store in Carmel, CA be?). Molly has some problem relations in general, and this book involves a long estranged Sister Carrie (a good title for a book?) who arrives on Molly's doorstep unexpectedly, bringing with her a 12 year old child, Emma. It's not a great time, because a friend of Molly's has just died -- apparently a heart attack at an antiques fair. Needless to say, the friend turns out to have been murdered -- but by whom? And why? Then Sister Carrie takes off, leaving Emma with Molly -- ostensibly for a day, and then as it turns out, for a lot longer. Emma is a delightful child (perhaps too delightful to be credible, but c'est la vie!) and Molly quickly develops a fondness for her, although she pretty much has to take Emma with her wherever she goes. When it's garage sales, that's fun, but when it's solving murders, my eyebrows shoot up. Poor Emma!

Flinn creates a great sense of place (I could picture everything) and if you have any interest in antiques, this book will probably get you even more interested. I thought the plotting was good, but in the end, so complicated that I had trouble sorting it all out.

I look forward to the next book by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Murder and antiques in Carmel
Review: This is the second in what I hope will be a long series (and one of the few I actually pre-ordered to be sent to me upon publication!) The protagonist is a wonderful female antiques dealer "of a certain age" who has escaped to Carmel to start over after an unpleasant parting with her former husband. Some characters in this second installment were more fleshed out and more interesting characters were introduced. The author evokes the California landscape skillfully and throws in lots of tidbits about antiques, all which I find fascinating. I agree with the previous reviewer that some of the editing was spotty, but nontheless I highly reccommend this and the previous book to any mystery lover.