Scandal in Fair Haven (Henrie O Series #2)

by Carolyn G. Hart

Overview

“Cheers for Henrie O, an intelligent, engaging sleuth!”—Mary Higgins Clark
 
Henrie O is looking forward to a quiet holiday. Instead, the ex-journalist turned sleuth awakens in a Tennessee mountain cabin to discover her friend’s nephew, his shirt stained with blood, his handsome face stricken by fear and horror.

Craig Matthews swears he didn’t kill his wife, swears he didn’t lure Patty Kay out to the playhouse of their lavish Fair Haven estate and leave her bloodied and dead. Why, then did he run away? It’s a question that draws Henrie O into the thick of a life-and-death drama, into the lives of Fair Haven’s best families, and into a world where wealth and privilege mask a hotbed of sex, lies, and desperation.
 
Only when Henrie O begins to question the motives of the bereaved widower, the sullen nymphet of a daughter, the irresistible ex-husband, the venomous sister, even the ingratiating schoolmaster of the exclusive school where Patty Kay was a trustee, does the truth start to emerge. But when another corpse turns up, Henrie O knows time is running out. Now she must untangle this deadly web—or become the next victim of a mind bent on murder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553565379
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/01/1995
Series:	Henrie O , #2
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	4.15(w) x 6.79(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

An accomplished master of mystery, Carolyn Hart is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty-five novels of mystery and suspense including the Bailey Ruth Ghost Novels and the Death on Demand Mysteries. Her books have won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. She has also been honored with the Amelia Award for significant contributions to the traditional mystery from Malice Domestic and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. One of the founders of Sisters in Crime, Hart lives in Oklahoma City, where she enjoys mysteries, walking in the park, and cats. She and her husband, Phil, serve as staff—cat owners will understand—to brother and sister brown tabbies.

Read an Excerpt

1
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Scandal in Fair Haven"
by .
Copyright © 1995 Carolyn Hart.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

What People are Saying About This

Nancy Pickard

America's answer to Miss Marple!

Mary Higgins Clark

Cheers for Henrie O, an intelligent, engaging sleuth!

Editorial Reviews

Agatha Award-winning Hart takes her retired Missouri newspaperwoman, Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, introduced in Dead Man's Island, to Tennessee, where she becomes the honorary aunt of a young man accused of killing his wife. Henrie O is vacationing at the mountain cabin of her friend Margaret, who is recovering from heart surgery, when Margaret's nephew, Craig Matthews, arrives distraught and bloodied. As he tells of having found his kitchen demolished and his wife Patty Kay murdered, Henrie O realizes that the weak-willed, perhaps devious, Craig has set himself up as the killer by running from the scene. As a favor to Margaret, she decides to investigate. In ritzy Fair Haven, near Nashville, Henrie discovers that the murdered woman had been a vibrant, forceful figure in town, a teacher and trustee at a posh private school (where a teenage girl recently committed suicide) and the owner of a bookstore where her friends worked as a sideline to their social pursuits. Gradually connecting the student's suicide to Patty Kay's death, Henrie also learns that each of the woman's friends has a motive for murder. From the first pages to the climax, where she uses a cannister of Mace to save herself from a murderer, Hart's widowed sleuth is a heroine of admirable courage and wit. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Hart's engaging armchair detective leaves her couch long enough to investigate a murder in an affluent community.

Library Journal

For readers who want the American equivalent of a British cozy with just a tad more spice, Hart is a real find. (Not that she doesn't already have a devoted audience--her books have won three major mystery awards.) Like Christie's Miss Marple mysteries, Hart's stories look at the feelings, emotions, and passions of real-life people in real-life situations. Hart's heroine, Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins ("Henrie O" to her friends) is a sixtysomething retired journalist-turned-sleuth with the gentle wisdom of Miss Marple and the sharp-witted exuberance of television's Jessica Fletcher. Henrie O's latest adventure takes her to Fair Haven, Tennessee, where a local bookstore owner is accused of murdering his wealthy wife. Even though it looks like an open-and-shut case, Henrie O's detecting instincts tell her something's fishy in Fair Haven. Hart offers a light and lively read with an appealing "small-town America" ambience, a compelling plot, a potpourri of fascinating characters, and some revealing insights into what makes us humans tick.

Emily Melton