Engaged to Die: Summary and book reviews of Engaged to Die by Carolyn Hart, plus links to an excerpt from Engaged to Die and a biography of Carolyn Hart.
Engaged to Die
by Carolyn Hart
Hardcover: Mar 2003,
320 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2004,
352 pages.
Love is in the air -- but alas, so is murder -- as award-winning author Carolyn Hart returns once again to the South Carolina Low Country island of Broward's Rock and sets her delightful married sleuths, the Darlings, on separate trails to a killer.
Nothing warms the heart like romance -- even as the raw, cold winds of January chill the residents of Broward's Rock to the bone. But it's more than amoré that intrigues mystery bookstore owner Annie Darling and her husband, Max, when wealthy, widowed art patron Virginia Neville announces her engagement to Jake O'Neill, her handsome, charming, and much younger fiancé, at a gala opening at the Neville gallery. Virginia's joyful announcement leaves many of the gathered -- especially certain members of her resentful extended stepfamily -- quite peeved. And one of the guests takes the news harder than the rest: before the last champagne bubble pops, murder disrupts the grand celebration.
Quickly deputized by Acting Police Chief Billy Cameron, troubleshooter Max Darling dives headfirst into the icy investigative waters, leaving wife Annie somewhat out in the cold. But since her young assistant, Chloe, is a prime suspect -- and one of Jake O'Neill's most recent broken hearts -- Annie is determined to untangle the unholy marriage of jealousy, blackmail, gunplay, and malicious mischief ... even if it means crossing swords with hubby Max and placing herself in the perilous path of a cleverly sadistic stalker.
Orlando Sentinel
[A] thrilling mystery...engaging reading any time of year.
Kirkus Reviews
Annie and her best customer Henny (April Fool Dead, 2002, etc.) offer up more titles and authors for mystery readers to sample, although this by-the-numbers offering would hardly qualify for anybody's must-read list.
Publishers Weekly
The interplay between Annie and Max enhances the plot, where in lesser hands it would become the focus. Those who appreciate crime fiction in the Agatha Christie Mousetrap mold will also go for this superb whodunit.
Booklist - Sue O'Brien
Mystery buffs will enjoy identifying the paintings of mystery scenes Hart describes at the beginning of the book and answering the trivia questions that Annie's longtime nemesis, Henny, uses to try to stump her. An enjoyable addition to a long-running series.
Tipping his hat to Agatha Christie, Boris Akunin’s latest page-turner transports the reader back to the glamorous, dangerous past in a richly atmospheric tale of suspense on the high seas.
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Kirkus Reviews
