Review: Murder Can Crash Your Party

TITLE: MURDER CAN CRASH YOUR PARTY

Author: SELMA EICHLER

Paperback mystery series

Obsidian publisher

Pub date:2008

ISBN:978-0-451-22384-5

Desiree Shapiro is a PI in Manhatten and nobody is more surprised than Desiree when she is asked to speak at a mystery writer's convention. Of all places it's in Connecticut and since she is not sure where her and the love of her life Nick stand she decided a few days away is just what she needs to gain perspective.  Speaking in public is a little lethel to Desiree but she pulls it off with style and wit. What she didn't expect more than being appeciated by a bunch of mystery writers is that she is approached my a very well known mystery author who is willing to pay her 24,940.00 all for reading belle Simone's unpulished manuscript and solving the mystery. Bell has written a whodunit and she wants Desiree to solve it one clue at a time. Belle will dole out the clues one at a time and as Desiree solves the mystery piece by she will then reveal who our murderer is and Desiree is just curious enough to take the job.

The thing is why is Belle so willing pay to have a homicide solved on paper and what is with the exact amount of money to be paid? Desiree is so focused on the manuscript that she forgets to call her niece Ellen and then when Desiree is struck with food poisioning Nick calls and proves why she thinks so much of him.  Of course while all of this is going on she also has to survive so she takes a case involving and an elderly friend who thinks his wife is cheating on him but the real mystery is what happens when there is a mystery within a mystery.

This story really is worth reading and both mysteries are excellent. I do not know if I could pull off writing a book of this calibur but Selma Eichler did miss a spoonful of ice cream or a dish of gossip and she definitely laid out every clue like a professional. This mystery should be used in teaching HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD MYSTERY as it's one of the best efforts by a mystery author that I have read in a long time. There is never enough time to read all the books we want to read but I would make time to read MURDER CAN CRASH YOUR PARTY this is a two for one mystery you won't want to miss!

Let's see if you can solve the murder before the last chapter and can you guess why the murders happened?

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Pamela James