High
Heels and Holidays
A Maggie Kelly
Mystery
Kasey Michaels
Kensington Books (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7582-0882-0 (0758208820)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-0882-8 (9780758208828)
Publication Date: October 2006
List Price: $14.00
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Mystery author Maggie Kelly is getting ready to
celebrate her first Christmas with Alexandre, Viscount Saint Just --
her once-fictional, but now all too-real sexy hero and boyfriend. But
her romantic Christmas plans go haywire when murder decides to deck the
halls ...
Bad Tidings We Bring! There’s nothing I’d rather be
doing
this time of year then singing Christmas carols while I trim my tree,
and snuggling next to my man Alex while we watch It’s a
Wonderful
Life for the umpteenth time. But this season, it seems some Grinch with
a really bad sense of humor is delivering packages of rotting rats and
death threats to me and the other authors who contributed to the
mystery collection No Secret Anymore.
To You and Your Kin! Sure, even I’ll admit the book was
terrible.
But why can’t this sicko just go to the bookstore and get a
refund? It’s Christmas, buddy -- not Halloween! But then
Jonathan
West -- the brainchild of No Secret Anymore -- turns up dead, and me
and Alex aren’t so sure anymore that the murderer is a just a
disgruntled reader... Bad tidings for Christmas—and a
Murderous
New Year! Jonathan had finally completed a new novel, which his agent
claimed to be his best. This leads us to think maybe a jealous rival is
the killer—that is, until two of Jonathan’s
obsessed fans
surface. So now the we’re scrambling to solve this mystery
before
eight writers—including yours truly—don’t
live to see
the New Year ...
Review:
High Heels and
Holidays
is the fifth mystery in this series by Kasey Michaels to feature
mystery author Maggie Kelly and her fictional, but now real,
Regency-era hero, the aristocrat-detective Alexandre Blake, the
Viscount Saint Just.
This disappointing entry in the series takes place immediately after
the gang returns from England, the site of the previous book, the
delightful and entertaining High
Heels and Homicide.
A colleague, Francis Oakes, has died under mysterious circumstances,
and though Maggie would rather be preparing for the holidays and
sharing an intimate moment with her fictional-but-real creation, she is
drawn into the mystery when another celebrity author is found dead.
This series has a unique twist to it, and Michaels uses a prologue in
the form of a letter from Maggie to "Fred" to describe just how the the
character of Alexandre Blake came to be. But readers new to the series
are likely to be confused by the whole premise, and are better served
to read one of the previous books to appreciate the situation in which
Maggie finds herself with Saint Just.
There's an astonishing amount of dialog in High Heels and Holidays,
but very little of substance is ever said. At one point Saint Just
notes, facetiously but accurately, "... you fascinate us with this
story, although you've said very little so far, haven't you?" And
Maggie herself says that "... if anyone sane ever eavesdropped on any
of our conversations, we'd all be locked up."
It's probably not giving away too much to say that Maggie and Alex get
romantically involved in this book, and that is frequently a problem
for a romantic mystery series. And a serious problem in this one.
Maggie, for all practical purposes, admits as much in another letter to
"Fred" in the epilogue. "So I give him this independent woman, see.
They battle—right off the bat. Two strong personalities,
going at
it ... but slowly, against their will, they're drawn to each other.
Big-time. Physically. They keep dancing around each other; advancing,
retreating, keeping the readers happy. And all the while she helps him
solve crimes. It could work."
Or not.
If the series is drawing to a close, this might be a way to end it. But
if Michaels intends to continue the adventures of Maggie and Saint
Just, a rapid retreat to their pre-Holiday relationship is definitely
in order.
Special thanks to Book Trends for providing an ARC of High Heels and Holidays for this review.
Review Copyright © 2006 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Maggie Needs an
Alibi
Kensington (Hardcover), July 2002
ISBN-10: 1-57566-879-3 (1575668793)
Maggie by the
Book
Kensington (Hardcover), August 2003
ISBN-10: 1-57566-881-5 (1575668815)
Maggie Without a
Clue
Kensington (Hardcover), August 2004
ISBN-10: 1-57566-883-1 (1575668831)
High Heels and
Homicide
Kensington (Trade paperback), December 2005
ISBN-10: 0-7582-0880-4 (0758208804)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-0880-4 (9780758208804)
High Heels and
Holidays
Kensington (Trade paperback), October 2006
ISBN-10: 0-7582-0882-0 (0758208820)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-0882-8 (9780758208828)
Bowled
Over
Kensington (Trade paperback), November 2007
ISBN-10: 0-7582-0884-7 (0758208847)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-0884-2 (9780758208842)
Omnimystery keywords for High Heels and Holidays
...
Location(s) referenced: New York City.