Scandal in Fair Haven

Rating:
Summary: Not the vacation she'd planned on
Review: Henrie O plans on a vacation to her friend's cabin in the Cumberland Mountains. Unfortunately her friend becomes ill and is not able to go, but she urges Henrie O to go anyway. When she arrives at the cabin, she encounters her friend's nephew who is in shock and is covered with his wife's blood. He has discovered her dead body and has run away in a panic, thus squarely pointing the finger of suspicion at himself. Henrie O believes that the young man did commit the murder and she sets out to find out who did. The cabin is near the upper middle class town of Fair Haven, and Henrie O finds a lot of people who envied the dead woman and who stood to gain financially from her death. After the usual red herrings, Henrie O finally uncovers the surprising truth. Carolyn Hart's books are always engrossing and well-written and I would recommend them to mystery fans.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The novel starts well enough, but then it meanders for about a hundred pages. Again and again the writer mulls over the suspects without coming to any conclusion. One almost senses that space is being filled for the publisher, without the plot moving forward a single inch.

But that is tolerable, perhaps. What is not tolerable is the murderer confessing in detail (while a tape recorder is running) and explaining just how the killing took place and why the crime was necessary--and then committing suicide. Baloney! It has been done far too many times. Surely readers are sick of this by now. The evidence here against the killer is flimsy at best, certainly not strong enough to stand up in court if the accused has a decent lawyer. All the murderer has to do is deny, deny, deny. The easy way out of this for the writer? Those old stand-bys, confession and suicide. Surely there has to be some alternative to this facile denouement.

Rating:
Summary: A real mystery and a strong woman- a great combo.
Review: This is the second Henrie O book I read. This is an excellent book.

Henrie O is a strong woman. She's not afraid to do what she thinks needs to be done. Her friend's son is in trouble and she takes on the role of aunt when it looks like he might have murdered his wife. I like that she doesn't spend a lot of time agonizing over the decisions she makes, she makes them and goes forward. In this case, she decides to do what she can to help the young man whose wife was murdered.

As she begins looking at the people who might have wanted Patty Kay dead, she is never sure if it wasn't Craig, the young man who might have killed his wife. She is similar to Miss Marple in that she considers the people involved, their emotions, and their motivations. However, Henrie O isn't above going out and doing a little sluething on her own as well.

Overall, I enjoyed this book bunches.

The Henrie O series is very different from the Death on Demand series although they are both written by the same author. Although they are different, they are both great series with a lot to offer a reader.