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A review by book_concierge
April Fool Dead by Carolyn G. Hart
1.0
Annie Darling has thought up the absolute best promotion for the April 1st book-signing of Emma Clyde’s latest Marigold Rembrandt mystery. She’s papered the island of Broward’s Rock with flyers and is sure to have a huge turnout at her Death on Demand mystery bookstore. When she spots a skywriting plane spelling out the book title – WHODUNIT? – she assumes her wealthy husband, Max, has orchestrated the surprise. But it wasn’t Max, or anyone else Annie knows. And more distressing, Annie soon learns that someone has distributed fake flyers with clues to several local crimes and offering a $1000 prize for the first person to solve them. If this is someone’s idea of an April Fool’s joke, it’s not very funny. Annie has to put a stop to this; her business is at risk!
This is book # 13 in the Death on Demand series. I read the first one a couple of years ago and it was entertaining enough. I picked this one up because the cover art satisfied a challenge. I’m sorry I didn’t check the library’s shelves for other options, because this was really dreadful.
The mystery flyers are just a lot of noise and Hart keeps jumping from character to character giving different points of view. The murder doesn’t happen until page 150, and apparently only Annie is investigating because we hardly see a police officer Then there is the side story involving Max’s mother, Laurel – a bigger-than-life wealthy widow with way too much time on her hands – which is totally unnecessary. I never did figure out what all the divining rods were for.
I have a feeling that this series, like so many others, has more than run its course; the author seems to have run out of coherent ideas. In a nutshell – the characters aren’t developed; the plot is disorganized; clues are nonexistent; the writing is padded with descriptions that add nothing to the story or atmosphere. Oh, and the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the story, as far as I can tell. Don’t waste your time.
This is book # 13 in the Death on Demand series. I read the first one a couple of years ago and it was entertaining enough. I picked this one up because the cover art satisfied a challenge. I’m sorry I didn’t check the library’s shelves for other options, because this was really dreadful.
The mystery flyers are just a lot of noise and Hart keeps jumping from character to character giving different points of view. The murder doesn’t happen until page 150, and apparently only Annie is investigating because we hardly see a police officer Then there is the side story involving Max’s mother, Laurel – a bigger-than-life wealthy widow with way too much time on her hands – which is totally unnecessary. I never did figure out what all the divining rods were for.
I have a feeling that this series, like so many others, has more than run its course; the author seems to have run out of coherent ideas. In a nutshell – the characters aren’t developed; the plot is disorganized; clues are nonexistent; the writing is padded with descriptions that add nothing to the story or atmosphere. Oh, and the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the story, as far as I can tell. Don’t waste your time.