Death Walked in

Once a year, the extended family of Geoffrey Grant gathers on Broward Island to celebrate his birthday. This year, just as after the entire family arrives, someone breaks into the Grant home during the night and steals a valuable coin collection. That same night, Gwen Jamison hears a fox trying to get into her chicken house. When she goes out to shoo the fox off, she sees someone she knows burying something in her family's cemetery. Max and Annie Darling become involved when Gwen calls Max. Max doesn't take the call, but Annie follows up and finds Gwen murdered. This book takes me back to my girlhood and my early days of Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew reading. Max and Annie are restoring a historic old house, with a secret hiding place, and a spooky past, complete with a book written about it. There is a missing treasure-the stolen coin collection, that may have been hidden in the Darlings' house. The potential suspects are a colorful cast of characters. There is of coarse the entire Grant family who appear to love Geoffrey, but do they? None of the children are actually his biological children, and they each have their own problematic pasts. What about Gwen's two sons? Would one of them have stolen the coins and then murdered his own mother to protect himself? There are even a couple of other people who are not part of Broward Island's regular residents that are somewhat suspicious. Hart's latest entry in her Death on Demand series will bring smiles to your face. While this book does not have much of the regular Death on Demand Bookstore crowd or the connections as most of the books in the series, fans will be pleased that the five paintings depicting five mysteries are still included for you to puzzle over. Readers new to Hart, as well as her long-time fans, will find Death Walks In to be the perfect way to spend a summer's day. Armchair Interviews agrees.

You already know the storyline so I'll just say that I love this series. I've enjoyed every book so far. I think Carolyn Hart is my favorite author. She makes me wish I could jump into her books & be Annie Darling for a while! I think this book series would make a good TV series. Along the lines of Murder, She Wrote.

In this classic mystery, with a South Carolina sea island backdrop, drama centers on the high-risk theft of precious gold coins, the tragedy of murder, and the price that evil must pay. DEATH WALKED IN delivers all the twists, turns, and thrills that Carolyn Hart fans look forward to. Annie and Max are restoring an antebellum mansion. She is feminine . . . and strong. He is sophisticated . . . and compassionate. Annie says, "I wish our beautiful house wasn't part of a crime." Max comforts her, "Every old house has had its good days and its bad days. We're going to have good days. But we can't ignore trouble when we're right in the middle of it." Even supporting characters leap off the page. I liked the high school principal who "knew his students, the ones who failed as well as those who succeeded, and he never stopped trying to reach the ones who needed help." When 'Death Walked In' at the end of the mystery, the encounter was unforgettable. This is the 18th book in the award-winning Death on Demand (bookstore) series--a treat for readers who appreciate fine literary writing that makes your heart race with suspense. Fun to read and the perfect solution for gift giving. Laurie Banton, book reviewer, 04/25/08

This latest in the Death on Demand series is a good one. But again, it's about the 18th book or so, so it may be better to start earlier somewhere in the series. That way you get to know Annie and Max Darling, and some of their wonderful friends on Broward's Rock. We don't see much of the three women in this book (Laurel, Max's mother, Emma, the island's famous mystery writer, and Henny, Annie's best friend) because they are apparently on a cruise somewhere in the Caribbean. But we see Annie and Max as they are trying to finish off their wonderful antebellum house. Someone has hidden some stolen Double Eagle coins somewhere in their unfinished house, and people are dying everywhere as the search for the coins continues. There's lots of blind alleys and red herrings in this wonderful off-beat cozy. I am all caught up in the series, so now I have to wait for another year for the next one, and that's a long time.

February in Broward's Rock, a South Carolina sea island is supposed to be quiet and relatively crime free now that the tourists have gone home. However business mogul Geoffrey Grant had much of his coin collection stolen and the appraised value was over half a million dollars. Max Darling, who almost got convicted for murder by a damsel in distress who elaborately framed him, got a call from a woman who needs help at his office Confidential Commissions. He refuses to take the call and comes to regret it when wife Anne goes to see the caller Gwen Jamison. Max's assistant called Anne and told her that Gwen put something in the Franklin House which Max and Anne are rebuilding and where Gwen was once the housekeeper. When Anne goes to Gwen's home she finds her dead body on the floor. A woman calls Anne who goes to the dock at night to meet her; the woman tells her she knows who stole the coins because she saw the person bury the cache at her graveyard. Two more deaths follow over the next few days causing Max and Anne to investigate, not aware the killer is watching them. DEATH WALKED IN is an exciting investigative tale with a husband and wife team as the main protagonists. They are the reason the Death On Demand series is popular as their team-up smoothly blends amateur sleuth and professional detective elements and they are bold enough to follow the clues wherever they may lead. The romance has not gone out of their marriage and is interwoven into the storyline. Carolyn Hart has written a charming and well constructed mystery that her fans will appreciate. Harriet Klausner