A Wedding to Die For

This unhurried and carefully drawn portrait of skullduggery in the Arkansas Ozarks is easy reading. The resort town of Eureka Springs and the historic Crescent Hotel are both real places, and the hotel lends itself admirably to nefarious goings-on. Its wings, oddly placed staircases, porches, decks, verandas, walkways, gardens and secluded paths can hide a multitude of sins. The story opens in Blackberry Hollow. Carrie McCrite is spooked -- by dreams about a bride dressed in red, by things that go bump in the night. She regrets refusing the sawed-off shotgun Henry King wanted to give her but at least Henry lives a few hundred yards away. He does have a gun, and Carrie has his phone number on speed-dial. Her upcoming wedding to Henry will be a December wedding in more ways than one. They are senior citizens. She's a widow. He's a cop, divorced and retired. Both are as nervous as teenagers. Carrie and Henry visit Eureka Springs to scope out the Crescent Hotel as a possible venue for the ceremony and reception. Never mind that the hotel is haunted. Carrie already has wedding night jitters. She's given up on wearing something wispy from Victoria's Secret and wonders if she can just wear a flannel nightie and socks. Carrie picks the hotel's sunny conservatory as the perfect spot for a simple wedding. A wedding consultant signs them up for a Storybook Wedding package. Everything is hunky-dory until Carrie and Henry walk into the middle of an ugly encounter between two florists. For the florist with the Big Blond Hair it's more than a simple turf war. The florists in the old green van are a husband and wife of East Indian descent, owners of Artistic Floral Designs. Big Blond Hair snarls, "... quit trying to horn in on my flower business. Take your family back to India where you belong." Embarrassed by such hateful behavior, Carrie and Henry make friends with the Artistic Floral couple and follow them to a gazebo where they're setting up for a wedding. As Carrie and Henry admire the decorations, a shot rings out ... There's much more to the story than flower shop rivalry. The racial prejudice thread figures prominently. A land dispute and pure greed are at the root of much evil. Carrie, Henry, and Carrie's two best friends use their common sense and detecting smarts to help solve blackmail, a bashing, a bombing, a stabbing, an attempted entombing,and the mystery of a ghostly bride wearing red.

Senior sleuths Carrie McCrite and Henry King are going to get married. Carrie is concerned what a senior bride would wear, so she enlists the help of her two friends, only they start taking over the planning. Since they suggested The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs for the wedding, Carrie gets Henry to go check it out with her. While there, Carrie sees a ghost bride wearing red. Their caterers are shot at while talking to them. Then they find out someone has been attacking their florists. It appears another florist in town has targeted them. After there is a murder and their florists shop is bombed, Carrie and Henry decide to try to locate the culprit behind all these acts. Can they do so without putting themselves or anyone else in danger? In the meantime, Carrie has invited Henry's half-sister to the wedding without Henry's knowledge. Will he be upset if she shows up? This is the first book in this series that I've read. I can assure you it won't be the last. I really enjoyed Carrie and Henry. They are great senior sleuths. Henry is a former cop so he has a lot of knowledge about investigations. Carrie just wants to help and gets into many situations. I also like that Carrie has good morals and isn't another twenty-something sleuth. She also has a good head on her shoulders which comes in handy in investigations. I can't wait to read more in this series. I highly recommend this book.

Radine Trees Nehring has made a name for herself as both a journalist and an award-winning author. Her favorite location is Arkansas, and her Something to Die For Mysteries capture the finer points of Arkansas and its unique population. Carrie McCrite and Henry King are the silver-haired super sleuths of Ms. Nehring's series, and in this episode they have decided to get married. Carrie is busy trying to reconnect Henry with a long-lost half sister; plan a wedding amidst senior citizen status and insecurity about her aging body; and include her favorite friends, Eleanor Stack and Shirley Booth. At a gathering her friends suggest the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, and Carrie decides to drag Henry over there to check out their wedding offerings. What she doesn't count on is a ghost in a red wedding dress; a feud between two flower shops; and a murder: "A quick scan with the flashlight told him the woman was most certainly dead. The body lay on its stomach, but her face was turned to the side. It looked like something irregular had been smashed into the head, a furious attack. Her wrists and ankles were bound with thin green wire wrapped at least five or six times around, then twisted tightly enough to cut the flesh. He saw blood there, too, so her heart had been beating when she was bound." A WEDDING TO DIE FOR is a clever tale displaying the hallmarks of Nehring's mystery franchise: a strong belief in God, helping neighbors in distress, and the deep love that is developing and growing between Carrie McCrite and Henry King. Nehring has her finger on the pulse of what makes senior citizens tick, and she weaves an action-filled plot with interesting and yet completely ordinary people to produce a mystery that is cozy and fascinating at the same time. McCrite's writing can take the reader from laughter to tears in short order, and her tale of Carrie and Henry's wedding plans and the resultant murder is fresh and inspiring. Nehring has produced another winner! Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer