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Title: New Year's Eve Murder by Lee Harris ISBN: 0-449-15018-6 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 1997 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Despite new baby showcase, Chris #9 usual good read!
Comment: This 9th entry in the Christine Bennett mystery series follows close to form of the pleasant puzzles we have discovered on each outing with Lee Harris. The re-introduction of ex-nun (for 15 years) Chris to the secular world doesn't get as much play as it did earlier: during the last almost three years since she left the convent she has dated, married, and in this book spends the first few weeks with her new baby, Eddie. Indeed, although irrelevant to the plot, we get a pretty steady dose of Eddie nursing, getting his first bottle, his first time home alone with his father (NYPD detective Jack), his first sleep through the night, and his first time visit to "day care". Together with a partially humorous incident where Chris is briefly detained at a rural police station for "nursing in public" (a little improbable since it was in the front seat of her own car), it occurred to us our author might have been weaving a bit of an ulterior message about life with new children into the story; and if so, fine.
The main plot is a slight departure from the mysteries of most of the other books, where the crime in question (usually murder) is long ago stale and unsolved, and seemingly right up the friendly and inquisitive amateur sleuth Chris' alley. Here the object of concern is Susan Stark, missing daughter of a couple with whom Chris and Jack spend a big New Year's Eve bash along with their friends the Golds (an attorney with whom Chris frequently consults or does little chores for...). Some very clever investigating by Chris over the next few days (not much the police can do with a missing adult) leads her to a cottage in the upstate New York woods where a dead body resembling the missing woman lies murdered on the kitchen floor. A long series of twists and turns leads Chris to one interesting discovery after another, delivering an entertaining enigma suspense-laden to close to the final pages. Revealing more would spoil this well-crafted tale of family intrigue and hateful revenge.
We felt having Chris solve a contemporaneous crime leant a little more credibility to the story than in some of the previous cases. When the trails are 30 years old, and half the witnesses dead or elderly, it gets a little harder to believe the quantity of fresh clues that just happen to surface to Chris that never cropped up during the official investigation. So that minor quibble we have occasionally felt with some of Harris' earlier books is absent here.
In sum, we have another well-written entry in the series. Our leading characters continue to develop, the puzzling mysteries are satisfying without being overly complex; and when we finish each looking forward to the next, alles ist gut!
Rating: 3
Summary: Good Book
Comment: Christine Bennett is an ex-nun and a new wife and mother. Not to mention somewhat of a detective. She meets the Stark's at a New Year's Eve party and soon finds out that their daughter was dropped in front of their house and hasn't been seen since.
Along the way Christine finds out some strange stuff about Susan (the Starks' daughter). Like how she thought she was adopted, etc.
This has an interesting plot, and is a good read. A few of the things I didn't like were how slow moving the book was, and then how it was sometimes narrated by Christine which somewhat annoyed me. Other than that it was okay.
Rating: 5
Summary: Lee Harris's mystery books are always a joy to read,
Comment: Former nun, Christine Bennett has been happily married for the past two years. She is also the proud mother of Eddie, her six week old son. On one of the family's first outings since the child's birth, they attend a New Year's Eve party hosted by her friend and boss, famed attorney Arnold Gold and his wife Harriet. They stay overnight, but the next morning they learn from Arnold that Susan, the daughter of close friends, Ada and Ernie Stark, is missing.
Arnold asks Chris, who has investigated and solved many cases, to look into the disappearance. Chris discovers that Susan was supposed to be staying at a deserted cabin in Bakersfield. When she arrives at the place, she finds a corpse who turns out to be a D. D. Butler. Susan returns home and is soon considered the prime suspect since her fingerprints are all over the cabin. Arnold, who is Susan's lawyer, asks Chris to stop her investigation, but the intrepid investigator is determined to find the link between the two women. Chris knows that the connection will help her uncover the identity of the real killer even as it exposes many shameful secrets.
The ninth work in the Christine Bennett mystery series is as good, if not better than the last entry which was great. It is fascinating watching the turns the ex-nun's life has taken over the course of the novels. In NEW YEAR'S EVE MURDER, readers are reacquainted with old friends and a cleverly plotted story line that takes unexpected twists and turns. Lee Harris is a very innovative story teller with a unique voice that is worth reading.
Harriet Klausner
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Title: Thanksgiving Day Murder by Lee Harris ISBN: 0449149234 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 27 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Mother's Day Murder by Lee Harris ISBN: 0449004422 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 04 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: Christening Day Murder by Lee Harris ISBN: 0449148718 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: St. Patrick's Day Murder by Lee Harris ISBN: 0449148726 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 31 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Yom Kippur Murder by Lee Harris ISBN: 0449147630 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 23 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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