Third in the Death on Demand mystery series set in a bookstore specializing in mysteries and run by Annie Laurence. It won an Agatha and an Anthony.My TakeThere is a very Agatha Christie feel to this mystery so it's understandable that it won an Agatha award. I have to confess that Annie was very annoying in this story. She takes everything so seriously. Part of me wanted to either smack Annie and tell her to lighten up while another part wanted Annie to smack Max for his being so very amused by the situation. If Annie would simply remember that it's a) her wedding and b) Laurel can't do much without her permission, she'd have a much easier time of it---as would Max. It would probably help if Annie were to actually do something about planning her wedding instead of leaving it up in the air.It's too funny that Henny keeps running around helping Annie detect by assuming the costume and manner of a different fictional lady detective every day. I'm really impressed that she puts so much effort into the costuming and speech. Where does she find the time?As always, Hart pulls in comparisons with a multitude of mystery authors, their primary themes, and the characters in their individual series. I've certainly been making my own list of new authors to read.The StoryLaurel is driving Annie nuts with her suggestions about the wedding. One day it's the Chinese tradition of wearing red and another day it's the Korean custom of the "groom riding a donkey to the bride's house carrying a goose and a gander as a symbol of fidelity" or the Fijian custom of giving a whale's tooth or holding the wedding on top of a pyramid or...Meanwhile, the Broward's Rock Players are desperate for a financially successful season. After their playhouse burned down in January, the land's owner, Harley Jenkins is threatening to lease the land to a retail shop. The players have to finish the season in the black if they want Jenkins to rebuild the theater.Doubt reigns over the first play of the season when they're stuck with Shane Petree. His wife has promised to cover all the expenses for the play if Shane plays Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace. And Shane is blowing their efforts with his lack of application. No one, however, can decide if it's one of the players or Jenkins who is sabotaging the rehearsals as well.But it's the party at Sheridan's house that puts Max in the frame as the killer and the sheriff is putting off Annie's efforts to free him.The CharactersAnnie Laurance runs Death on Demand, a bookstore specializing in mysteries and based on Broward's Rock. She has a preference for fast food while Max wants healthy. Guess who'll be doin' the cookin' in this household! Annie is playing Elaine in the play.Max Darling is a wealthy lawyer playing at detective while his mother Laurel terrorizes Annie about their upcoming September wedding. Max is playing Mortimer in the play. Laurel is a wealthy globe-trotting woman who finds a new cultural tradition every other day that she wants Annie to incorporate into her simple, small wedding. A very touchy-feely, woo-woo kind of woman.Harley Edward Jenkins III is the CEO of Halcyon Development, owner of the land on which the theater stood. Burt Conroy is president of the Broward Rock Players and stage manager. He made a deal with Sheridan Petree to cast her husband Shane as Teddy Roosevelt. A decision about which almost everyone is fuming. Well, who can blame them when Shane is consistently late to rehearsal and can't be bothered to learn his lines. Carla Fontaine runs an art gallery in town and is the set designer and chief carpenter. Arthur Killeen is the local druggist playing Dr. Einstein. Henny Brawley is one of Annie's best customers and plays Aunt Abby. Sam Haznine is the director desperate for a hit back to the top; his current sweetie is not at all happy to be stuck on Broward's Rock. Hugo Wolf plays Jonathan; a heavy hitter with a presence currently retired from his law career. Feel bad for T.K. Horton as he has to cope with both of his women's obsessions: his cheating wife Janet who plays Aunt Martha, a good actress but too obsessed with her affair with Shane as well as intensely jealous over their daughter Cindy's affair with...Shane. Eugene Ferramond should have played Teddy; he's perfect physically and obsessed with every detail about this Roosevelt's life. Instead Eugene is playing Officer O'Hara.Chief Saulter is on Annie and Max's side but he does have to abide by Posey's rulings. Publicly. Brice Willard Posey is an idiot more impressed with his own grandstanding than actually finding out the truth. I do wish that Hart had given us some enjoyment at his "downfall". Jed McClanahan is the lawyer Annie found for Max. I am so grateful that his services weren't actually needed. Sue Kay Conrad provides a major clue in the case although it's Mrs. Harriet MacKenzie who provides the pivotal break.The CoverThe cover is spooky with the red velvet theatre curtains parted exposing the trumpet, a playbook, a lit candelabra, and the floating veiled skull grinning out at us! Eeek! The label pinned to the drapery certainly doesn't help!The title does indeed herald Something Wicked about this group of people.
Read for monograph. In 1988, the Malice Domestic Awards were created. The Agatha is given to the best novel and best first novel (as well as a few other designations.) The first Agatha given for a best novel was to Hart's Something Wicked, part of the Death on Demand series.My favorite aspects of this series: the setting is an island off of South Carolina. Hart does a great job with description, enough so that I would love to see and possibly live on such an island, and I really have no interest in living in the south.I love that the lead character, Annie, owns a mystery bookstore. There are great descriptions of different promotions, and Hart weaves in mystery titles and authors from all across the mystery spectrum. Reading one of her books is an education in mystery reading.
What do You think about Something Wicked (1988)?
Annie runs a bookstore called Death On Demand. In this book she's part of a theater group who is rehersing for Arsenic and Old Lace, when (cue creepy music)someone is murdered. So who did it, and why? To find out, read on.The book kept my interest but it didn't evoke much emotion. I kept confusing the characters, probably because I wasn't that invested. It's a good book for multi-tasking; light, not too emotional, something you can put on for back ground noise and enjoy without paying too close attention. The narration was pretty good too.
—Jen
It's up to Annie and Max to figure out why the summer stock version of "Arsenic and Old Lace" is having so many problems. Things have been moved around, there was a dead cat in the window seat, and now one of their castmates is dead. Granted, the aging surf-picture-star was causing a LOT of problems, not knowing his lines, messing around with both a mother and her daughter, just generally being a putz. Which means that there are more than a few suspects. Including Max. It seems the county prosecutor is about to be re-elected and he needs a big case. He also hates rich people so he focuses in on Max.Not as good as the first book but it kept me reading.
—Jessi
#3 of the Death on Demand seriesThis is my year to catch up on this series although it looks like I'll be continuing into 2014. I really like the mystery bookstore milieu, the island setting, the five pictures mystery puzzle in each novel, and, most of all, Annie & Max, the main characters.What I could use a little less of is the over-the-top secondary characters such as Henny Brawley, Annie's best customer who likes to assist in the investigations by taking on the persona of various fictional detectives. In this particular book, we are also introduced to Circuit Solicitor Posey who is so bull-headedly wrong about everything in the murder investigation. I realize that they're supposed to be comic characters but I find them annoying. On the plus side, we do get introduced to Max's mom, the indefatigable Laurel.
—Judy Goodnight
