May the Best Man Die (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 3)

Carnegie Kincaid is a wedding planner in Seattle. Normally she doesn't plan stag parties. She plans weddings. But, her new client insisted. After she left the party, she ends up looking through binoculars to watch the party. Why? Her significant other, although they're currently having trouble, is at the party. What she doesn't know is that a killer is there, too. The next day the best man is pulled from the canal. Who could have killed him? What did she see in those binoculars? Anything important? After she tells police what she saw and gets a friend in trouble, she decides she'd better look into things herself before telling them anything else. She gets Aaron, her significant other, to help her. Not only does she have this New Year's Eve wedding to be planning, she has another Christmas wedding to plan. And now Ivy, the mother of the bride for the New Year's Eve wedding, has asked her to plan another party. Since the murder is related to that wedding, she wants to spend as much time as possible with the parties to try to determine who could have been the murderer. Can she do that before anyone else is murdered, including herself? Plus what about her new love interest? Will this muddy the waters? Carnegie is a great character. She is a lot of fun, and she gets herself into predicaments throughout the book. I felt it was a very believable story, and a lot of fun to read. I can't wait to read more. I am originally from Washington State, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book set in Seattle. I think the author does a great job of weaving the wedding planning and the sleuthing. I highly recommend this book.

Deborah Donnelly has a great series with her sleuth/wedding planner - Carnegie Kincaid. The plot/subplots are great and her wedding and party planning ideas are pretty good as well.I would not have missed reading about the Christmas wedding for anything. The "Killer B's" were great. I am going to miss them and hope that somehow they'll be included in the next book if only slightly. (Kind of how the southern Sheriff always managed to appear SOMEWHERE in the James Bond movies.)This is not a "gruesome" murder series. It is a joy to find another great read.

In this, her third mystery, Deborah Donnelly onlycontinues to make her heroine and hero's more appealing, her mystery more difficult to solve and the background informationas frothy as whipped cream in appearance and solid as brick in weight. Carnegie is a wedding planner beset with boyfri woes, financial woes and demanding clients. Forced to cater a bachelor partybriefly mistaken for a stripper and finding out herformer boyfri is on the premises, Carnegie leaves in a huff only to note that her rental looks(with a bit of binocular assistance) into the party area. Noting a fight between two of the guests she later learns that one of the fighters is dead,From running around planning weddings to running away from thekiller is a leap that Donnelly has Carnegie take easily, believably and us right along with her. Her primary characters are appealing BUT what is intriguing is that her secondary cast of characters also have such appeal that we wonder and worryabout them as well. Not a long book or an especially heavy one-May The Best Man Die goes down like a particularlyfine wedding cake that has been strongly laced witha first class brandy. Yummy.

Wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid may create other events from time to time but she draws the line at bachelor parties. She is understandably perturbed to get a call from her bride ordering her to go to the Hot Spot to straighten something up for the groom. When she arrives at the famous club, the best man asks her to make a liquor run. She walks out in a huff and when she returns to her office, she looks out her window and sees the best man and her best friend's brother fighting.The next day a policeman comes to her office asking her to identify a body at the morgue because Carnegie's business card was found in his pants pocket. A reluctant Carnegie identifies the body as Jason Kraye, the best man. She then goes on to tell the police officer about the fight she witnessed and the police arrest Darren. Lily is furious at Carnegie for ratting out her brother and a remorseful Carnegie swears to her friend she will find out who the killer is. Her promise almost costs Carnegie her life.Each book in this funny and fascinating amateur sleuth series is better than the one before. The author, a talented writer with a wicked knack for creating crisp dialogue and sharp characters, allows her heroine to grow and change so that readers feel she is believable. Despite the fact that two murders take place in MAY THE BEST MAN DIE, there is no violence in the novel so fans of cosies will want to obtain this weeding bell blues novel.Harriet Klausner

Who can resist a wedding? Especially a wedding surrounded by murder, yuletide mayhem, and a wonderful cast of characters led by smart and sexy wedding planner, Carnegie Kincaid. Her bumpy romance with Aaron is irresistable, and the secondary characters are just plain fun (love those Buckmeisters!) Perfect weekend reading!