Reviews

Deathday Party by Paula Carter

angrygreycatreads's review

2.0

This outing in the series didn’t work as well as the first book for me. This book used a classic plot device, the isolated house in the country, a storm, a bridge to the house washed out, and from then on it “And Then There Were None” territory. This book was written in 1999 but it came across as a much earlier time and yet it was obviously supposed to be set currently. Although I have read and enjoyed mysteries with this “isolated country house” plot device, it just didn’t ring quite true in this case.

I still enjoyed the protagonists, although Hillary is becoming progressively sillier. I think that I would have enjoyed another mystery set in the town so that Hillary and Jane would interact more with recurring characters, rather than introduce an entirely new large cast of characters.

I will read the third and last book in the series if I come across it because I did enjoy the first book quite a bit.

audreyintheheadphones's review

4.0

Banter makes a great cozy, is the bottom line of this little gem. The formidably amusing duo of Southern belle Hillary and fish-out-of-water Jane is rescued from cliche by zippy dialogue that never interferes with the haunted house and its more-than-eccentric Gothic family. Whodunnit's fairly clear early on, but you don't really mind. Loved the recipe for Hillary's Brandy Sauce, wish we could've had the recipe for the pecan-cranberry quickbread she mentions, too. But definitely a keeper.