Broward's Rock, South Carolina, is again the setting for the latest adventure involving married sleuths Max and Annie Darling. Max has tried to stay out of island politics, but when Jean Hughes, director of the island's youth center, Haven, approaches him for help, he jumps in with both feet. Everyone knows Jean was brought to the island and given the job because of her relationship with board member Booth Wagner. Though thought of as Booth's bimbo by many, Jean gives the job her all, and is successful on many levels. She's certainly the most popular director Haven has seen in years. Unfortunately, Booth soon tires of Jean and decides to have her dismissed, leading Jean to seek Max's assistance in keeping her job.
Where Max leads, Annie soon follows, and the couple begins a campaign within the community for Jean to keep her job. Pressure is added when a Haven youth turns up dead, with no clues to the identity of the killer. When Booth is murdered the night he plans on handing Jean her walking papers, at a benefit attended by most of the community, and his teenaged stepson disappears, it seems like an open-and-shut case. But Max and Annie believe the two murders might be connected and set out to prove it, setting the real killer on their trail.
LAUGHED 'TIL HE DIED by Carolyn Hart is a cleverly crafted whodunit. Max and Annie are a likable pair of amateur detectives, devoted to one another and to their island community. Ms. Hart's writing style makes for an enjoyable read as she sets up the story by introducing her cast of characters before leading the reader into the story. This latest in the Death on Demand mystery series will delight both longtime fans and those new to the series.
A teenager well-liked at the island youth center dies in an
accidental fall. A wealthy businessman booms with laughter
at those around him until a shot rings out at the center's
annual program. Max Darling suspects a connection between
the two deaths. Another teenager is attacked. The center's
director faces arrest which will separate her from her dying
sister. Annie and Max Darling race against time to prove her
innocence and scramble to solve three inter-locking puzzles:
the pulled-out pant pockets of one victim, three guns that
appear and disappear, and the disappearance of a teenager
who may have seen too much.
Intrigue and foul play are no strangers to the idyllic South
Carolina sea island of Broward's Rock. Mystery bookstore
owner Annie Darling and her husband, Max, who specialize in
solving problems, plunge into a startling web of danger and
deceit when a trio of deaths is linked to the island's youth
recreation center.
With the evidence mounting against her, the center's
director seeks out Max to clear her name. When it comes to
intrigue, where Max goes, Annie isn't far behind. To save an
innocent woman, the pair scrambles to unravel three complex
interlinked puzzles: the mystery of three guns, the
pulled-out pant pockets of one victim, and the disappearance
of a teenager whose stepfather always had the last
laughβuntil he died.
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