Silver Scream
A Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery with Judith McMonigle Flynn
Mary Daheim
Review: Silver Scream is the 18th entry in this mystery series by Mary Daheim featuring bed-and-breakfast owner Judith McMonigle.
This long-running series has had its ups-and-downs, but Silver Scream is one of the better of the more recent books. Maybe it's just that Hollywood stereotypes are so easy to incorporate into characters, and Daheim does a fine job with them all. Adding a mysterious element to the foggy Pacific Northwest locale is setting the mystery at Halloween; one is never quite sure if the guests are wearing metaphorical masks or not. In the end, Daheim brings the murder mystery to a satisfactory, if somewhat unexpected, conclusion.
Long-time readers of the series will enjoy this latest bed-and-breakfast mystery, and new readers will no doubt want to pick up one of the earlier entries.
Review Copyright © 2002 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in Silver Scream: Pacific Northwest
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Silver Scream by Mary Daheim
Publisher: William Morrow
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-380-97867-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-380-97867-0
Publication Date: May 2002
List Price: $23.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Filmdom's most sparkling glitterati have brought their limos and their egos to Judith McMonigle Flynn's Hillside Manor for a gala preview of the latest epic monstrosity from genius superproducer Bruno Zepf. Hostess Flynn's Pacific Northwest B&B is a far cry from Hollywood -- but then Bruno's cinematic spectacular is a far cry from good. And the great man's entourage -- with their swelled heads, their tantrums, their demands, and their illicit habits - surely rank among the most insufferable guests ever to rumple Judith's bed linens.
Bruno hopes his new film is to die for -- unfortunately for him, it is. Not long after the lights come up on the less-than-lauded screening, the unfortunate mogul is discovered drowned in the kitchen sink. His demise could have been a bizarre accident caused by a faulty cabinet door that Judith's ex-cop hubby Joe Flynn never got around to repairing. And since the only species in Tinseltown more numerous than Oscar seekers is attorneys, Judith could lose Hillside Manor in a wrongful-death suit. Unless, of course, she can prove it was murder.
But there's a problem: No one on the scene benefits from the producer's fade-to-black. The police are stymied (surprise!), but Judith's livelihood depends upon her finding a killer -- any killer will do. And that's the script she intends to follow, with the assistance of "Mr. Don't-Fix-It" Joe and a curiously reluctant cousin Renie, who's got troubles of her own.
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