Review

Annie Darling loves a good mystery and as owner of bookstore Death on Demand, she has plenty of opportunities to enjoy her favorite pastime. However, Annie ends up involved in a real-life murder mystery when the sister of an apparent suicide victim insists her brother’s death was murder. Annie wants to help comfort the sister of the beloved doctor, Paul Martin, but all evidence seems to point to suicide. Things change when another sudden death occurs in the small island village of Broward’s Rock. Annie and her dashing husband Max step in to find out what’s really going on, with the help of Max’s mother and Annie’s friends Henny and Emma, of course.

I’ve read many of the books in this series, and instead of the characters becoming stale, author Carolyn Hart allows the regulars to change and grow, which keeps things fresh. This is quite an accomplishment since Death at the Door is the 24th book in the series! It starts a little strangely, with an introduction to many new characters and hints at their dramatic backstories. It’s a little confusing at first figuring out who’s who. Luckily, sweet and smart Annie Darling enters the picture fairly quickly and the book gets back to familiar ground, focusing on the most important of the large cast of characters.

This book has an interesting plot and keeps the reader guessing as to who is guilty and who is innocent. Annie and Max are a modern day Nick and Nora and their love for each other comes through in every scene.  I am so pleased to see how much Annie has matured as this series has gone on. She is much more accepting of her free-spirited mother-in-law and is starting to focus on Laurel’s good qualities instead of dwelling on her flaws. This really helps the tone of these books making them even more enjoyable than some of the early installments in which Annie was always on the defensive around Laurel. Also, in the past few books, Annie’s friends Henny and Emma have been able to put aside their differences and the result is a formidable and entertaining investigative team of Annie, Max, Henny, Laurel, and Emma using their own individual strengths, but working together to solve crimes. This installment is no different as everyone splits up the list of witnesses and suspects to question and then pools their information to get to the correct solution.

The mystery bookstore theme isn’t forgotten as titles of mysteries are cleverly interspersed throughout the book. One of my favorite parts of this series has always been the monthly contest Annie holds for her bookstore customers, although Henny or Emma usually win. Annie displays a painting of scene illustrating a classic or new mystery novel. Readers are given descriptions of the paintings to they too can try to guess the mystery novel being depicted. It’s fun to try to guess, even though I’ve never gotten all of them right.

Fans of this series, as well as those who enjoy the writing style of Susan Wittig Albert or Joan Hess will enjoy this interesting mystery full of twist and turns.

Reviewed by Christine