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Wealthy Annie and Max Darling are happy with their marriage and each other as they live together on the South Carolina island of Broward's Rock. There Annie runs her Death On Demand Bookstore and Max has his Confidential Commissions, a consulting agency that helps people when they have problems. One day Max calls Annie and tells her he has a new client and will probably get home late, but he will call her at any rate. Very late that night, Annie still hasn't heard from Max and her intuition tells her that something is very wrong. Meanwhile Max had met his new client, a young, beautiful woman and goes with her to a low-down bar to help her find her missing brother. Something doesn't feel right about the case to Max but he figures he will drop the client the next day. But that night he is drugged and he wakes up bloodied and sick in an out of the way deserted cabin on the island. Annie calls her friend, local police Chief Billy Cameron and because Billy knows Annie and Max so well he starts looking for Max right away. Annie then calls upon all of her friends from the island to come together with all of their different talents to work together to find Max. While looking for Max, the police come across the bloodied dead body of a beautiful young woman. They soon find out that she worked as a private secretary for a wealthy woman, Lillian Dodd. Before long all the clues point to Max Darling as the one who was with her the night she was killed. It turns out that she was Max's client. Then when Max is found, though their friend Billy the police chief doesn't think it's true, his supervisors and bosses order that Max is arrested right away as the prime suspect in the murder. As all of the couple's friends do their best to get information to help Max, Annie herself gets an idea on how she could help. Her idea is dangerous and takes her right into where the real killer could harm her if her real identity is discovered. But for her beloved Max, Annie is willing to risk everything. DEAD DAYS OF SUMMER is yet another wonderfully-written book by Carolyn Hart. The woman knows how to write realistic dialogue that also manages to let the emotions of the characters shine through. Almost all of the regular denizens living in Broward's Rock and who are friends of the Darlings, appear in this book. In order to help, each character uses their own special talent to contribute to the success of their tasks. This book does a fine job with the mysteries and the solution. My only criticism is that the readers have to look away from the fact that the island is rather small and that the guilty party made the biggest mistake in choosing Max as the scapegoat. Surely anyone who lived on the island would know that Max and Annie have many, many friends made up of the best minds in the area. The readers also need to forget that Max's mother was also well known and will have to forgive it when she was not recognized as the mother of the arrested man when she also went undercover. Because this book is created with a great deal of talent and it is so highly entertaining, the readers will forgive this shortcoming. DEAD DAYS OF SUMMER is a fine book and will be enjoyed by any reader who cherishes a good murder mystery.
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, April 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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