Death Walked In-Carolyn Hart

Death Walked In
Carolyn Hart
Morrow, April 2008, $23.95, 304 pp.
ISBN: 9780060724054

February in Broward’s Rock, a South Carolina sea island is supposed to be quiet and relatively crime free now that the tourists have gone home. However business mogul Geoffrey Grant had much of his coin collection stolen and the appraised value was over half a million dollars. Max Darling, who almost got convicted for murder by a damsel in distress who elaborately framed him, got a call from a woman who needs help at his office Confidential Commissions.

He refuses to take the call and comes to regret it when wife Anne goes to see the caller Gwen Jamison. Max’s assistant called Anne and told her that Gwen put something in the Franklin House which Max and Anne are rebuilding and where Gwen was once the housekeeper. When Anne goes to Gwen’s home she finds her dead body on the floor. A woman calls Anne who goes to the dock at night to meet her; the woman tells her she knows who stole the coins because she saw the person bury the cache at her graveyard. Two more deaths follow over the next few days causing Max and Anne to investigate, not aware the killer is watching them.

DEATH WALKED IN is an exciting investigative tale with a husband and wife team as the main protagonists. They are the reason the Death On Demand series is popular as their team-up smoothly blends amateur sleuth and professional detective elements and they are bold enough to follow the clues wherever they may lead. The romance has not gone out of their marriage and is interwoven into the storyline. Carolyn Hart has written a charming and well constructed mystery that her fans will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner