Mystery

A personality-challenged playwright with whom Charlie Harris's daughter Laura had a brief affair becomes the playwright-in-residence at the university where Charlie works and Laura has also taken up a teaching post for one semester. Laura finds his body and is concealing something from the police.

“I’ve seen every episode of Murder, She Wrote , and I adore Angela Lansbury to pieces. But you’d have to be insane to let Jessica Fletcher within ten yards of your house."

The way Charlie Harris's track record is going, I don't think his household is in any position to cast aspersions on Jessica Fletcher. He said in the first book that the last murder in town was 7 or 8 years ago, and although I haven't been keeping count there must have been 6 or 7 murders in the books so far, which cover about a year. ( )

3.5 stars

Archivist and rare book cataloguer Charlie Harris’ adult daughter, Laura, has come “home” for a semester to teach acting at the local college. Unfortunately, the distasteful playwright Connor Lawson is also in town. He just rubs Charlie the wrong way! Not only does Connor happen to be working with Laura, Charlie finds out Laura once dated him, and he does not want to take no for an answer. It’s not long before Laura gets some threatening mail. And a bit later… someone is found murdered.

I do enjoy this series! As a librarian (and a cataloguer), I like the library tidbits included (the author is a library cataloguer). There’s some fun interaction between Charlie, Laura, and Charlie’s son, Sean (and a couple of boarders at Charlie’s house), too. And I have to mention Charlie’s smart Maine Coon cat (all 36 lbs of him!), although I do feel like Diesel wasn’t as much in this one as the others, but it’s been a while, so I might not be remembering. The murder doesn’t actually happen until about 1/3 of the way into the book, as the first bit is introductions to the characters. I really do enjoy this series and will be continuing. ( )

Quick easy reading with some suspense. Charlie Harris as the narrator, talked more like a female, came across as a truly loving Dad, utilized his skills as a librarian and solved most of the mystery in a logical way. Diesel, the cat, certainly was noisy but did play a part in the suspicious envelope. The actress daughter in danger and lawyer son added a nice touch to the story. Wondered what happened in previous books to make Charlie almost afraid to deal with Deputy Kanesha Berry. I suspected the murderer early on but needed the story for the reasons. ( )

Charlie Harris, archivist at a university in Athena, Mississippi, finds himself involved in another investigation when his daughter Laura returns home to teach drama. When the playright/director for the production turns up dead, several suspects with varying motives emerge. Fortunately Diesel the cat helps keep a fire meant to torch the home from ever gaining hold and shows Charlie the suspicious package addressed to Laura before she can open it. One suspect is killed. Police must seek the killer from striking again and try to keep Laura safe, but Charlie and his son Sean, an attorney, know they need to help. While this installment provides a fun reading experience, the police and amateur sleuths need better relationship development to improve the series. Kanesha, whose mother works for Charlie, seems entirely too cold and distant. I think the author, in an effort to make her seem all business-like, made her too cold. ( )