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You May Now Kill The Bride
Wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid lives and runs her business on a houseboat on Seattle's Lake Union. At the moment, she's planning the wedding of her best friend Lily and police detective Mike Graham. In contrast to the lavish affairs she usually arranges, this will be a simple, but beautiful family and friends ceremony and reception on San Juan Island. Carnegie is to be Lily's maid of honor. All goes well, with only last minute details left to arrange, but Carnegie is still not sure if her boyfriend Aaron will be attending, or even if he's still her boyfriend. Aaron was badly injured some months ago when smoke jumping into a forest fire in Idaho (See DEATH TAKES A HONEYMOON). Rather than stay to let Carnegie care for him, Aaron chose to go to his sister in Boston. Carnegie has been invited to join her mother to stay at her wealthy gentleman friend's cottage on San Juan and meet his daughters. Carnegie is not sure she really approves of Owen, but he seems to make her mother happy, so she's prepared to keep an open mind. Her mother and Owen are away when Carnegie arrives at the cottage, which is really a gracious old Victorian. Gracious is not the word for the potential stepsisters, however; they could play Cinderella's tormenters without even acting. The one person to welcome Carnegie to the house will soon have the misfortune to be murdered, and Carnegie will have the further misfortune to stumble upon the crime scene. Carnegie attempts to discover the identity of the murderer as the principles and the guests begin to arrive on the island. The Wedding Planner Mysteries are lots of fun. Carnegie is eminently likable. She's fresh and upbeat and has a varied miscellany of friends. The books are written with a light touch for the most part, though at times they can be serious and suspenseful. Ms. Donnelly uses unusual settings that are as important to the plot as the characters. In YOU MAY NOW KILL THE BRIDE, for instance, the wedding is to take place at a vividly drawn lavender farm amid many varieties of the fragrant flowers. The Wedding Planner Mysteries, YOU MAY NOW KILL THE BRIDE included, give readers plenty of suspects and a true mystery to try to solve. If you haven't yet dipped into them, you're missing a treat. If you have, you'll want to catch up on Carnegie's stop-and-go love life and the troubles she falls in and out of as proprietor of, as her business card says, "Made in Heaven, Weddings with an Original Flair." Romantic Times Book Club |
