Wow, I completely loved this book! I've read 6 or 7 in this Death on Demand series and some of them have been a touch dull, or at least left me a little bored. But this one was so good!
The series is about Annie Darling, a young woman who owns a book shop on a resort Island in South Carolina. She's married to the dashing, wealthy, handsome Max, who is a bit of a dilettante but he worships his Annie and is smart as a whip when it comes to helping her solve mysteries. The series regulars include Max's loopy mother, Laurel, and various customers who frequent Annie's shop.
Annie's shop, also called Death on Demand, is a mystery bookstore. She only sells mysteries, then she gets into mystery-related situations and somebody dies, etc. etc. You know the formula by now, right?
So in Mint Julep Murder, Annie is at a Southern Writer's conference in Hilton Head, where she's tasked with being an author liaison for five writers set to receive awards at the event. A publisher also in attendance says he's going to write a tell-all book about the 5 famous writers and, surprise! Someone poisons him at his own cocktail party.
This mystery was straight out of Agatha Christie in style and deftness. The 'closed set' if you will, the obvious list of suspects with good motive, the poison, and good back stories on all the suspects. It was great and even had a classic 'gather-everyone-in-a-room-and-talk-through-the-murder-till-you-point-a-finger-at-the-killer' ending. It seems most of the mysteries I've been reading in the past year or so tend to be the small town setting, which is fun, but the old fashioned weekend house party style of story was a welcome change.
Another great thing about the Hart series is that she mentions dozens of other mystery writers throughout her books. She name-drops famous literary detectives and authors numerous times throughout, making for a very fun way to beef up the old library list, at the same time!
As an aside, I finally got a good explanation of why I love mysteries so much, in case anyone ever asks me. A character in the book said that she wrote mysteries because they are a magnification of what happens when you let evil into yourself. She said that everyone in real life has fractured relationships and difficult people in their lives, but when you let evil in, you are allow yourself to hurt those people. Murder mysteries take that evil to the extreme end--the idea that these motives and reasons for killing someone come from a difficult relationship infused with evil. Mysteries aren't just about the clues and sleuthing, they're about justice and righting wrongs. Just as a reader can absorb a mystery novel and understand that hate and discontent and greed can lead the human nature to murder, he or she also has a passion for the who-done-it, the handcuffs clicking around the culprit's wrists. So mystery novels, whether the tame Nancy Drew or the grisly James Patterson, are all morality plays with a heart for justice.
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