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DECORATED TO DEATH
by Dean James
Kensington, April 2004
232 pages
$22.00
ISBN: 075820485X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

American Simon Kirby-Jones lives in the small English village of Snupperton Mumsley. He seems to be accepted by the locals, except for the mother of his assistant, Sir Giles Blitherington. Giles knows that Simon is gay, but no one in the village suspects he is also a vampire. He takes two pills a day that allows him to go out during the day, and no one notices that he really doesn't eat much.

Lady Blitherington invites Kirby-Jones to tea. Ezekial Harwood, compere of the most popular decorating show on TV, has agreed to redo one of the rooms of Blitherington Manor for his show -- for his last show on British TV before leaving for more wealth and fame in the US. He turns out to be a monster. But Lady Blitherington, or rather Giles, must deal with him because money is tight at the manor and the drawing room really needs renovation.

Anyone who has seen the British TV series Changing Rooms will recognize Zeke as being at least partially based on that faux fey fop, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, one of the decorators on the original series. Some of the ideas on that show are quite outré but, for the most part, livable, unlike the US version Trading Spaces, where the whole point of the show is to make the couple receiving the makeover cry with disappointment.

As with the previous two titles in the series, POSTED TO DEATH and FAKED TO DEATH, James delivers an exquisitely detailed homage/send-up of the classic mysteries of Agatha Christie. We even have a reference to Simon's nemesis, when his pills stop working as they should, and a touch of romance. When will Simon tell Giles the truth? We shall have to wait for the next title in this series to find out.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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