I found this book difficult to stay with. Haddam starts out with a 48 page prologue that describes nine of the characters that are supposed to come into play in the plot. She jumps around in the story, going back and forth to the oversized Evelyn Bracken and her eating habits and a husband who detests her oversized body. Then she jumps into a land deal where Sara Lockwood and her husband are trying to swindle people on a land deal. All the while, still trying to make this book a murder mystery and mixed with a wedding to boot. I will have to say that the plot could have been a good one and had potential, had she not ruined it with all the other characters. I was surprised in the end and I liked that. Haddam has talent and imagination, she just needs to stick to her story and not use so many characters that shouldn't be part of it. This is the first book I've read by Jane Haddam, but this book wouldn't stop me from reading another one by her.

Deadly Beloved is a delightful mix of Haddam's family of characters, familiar setting and nifty plot twists. What makes this book great is the new depth of characterization she has achieved. In this adventure, Gregor does some soul searching of his own and becomes a fuller character with whom the reader can relate. Haddam still lets us laugh at our own silliness over hallmarks in life, this time wedding fervor, and she gives us a great mystery to spice it up.

Embarking on a new Gregor Demarkian story by Jane Haddam is like going back home to the neighborhood you left all those years ago. Cavanaugh Street in Philadelphia is still an Armenian-American enclave, but more Armenian now than it was all those years ago when Gregor was a small boy living there with his parents. Even though it's been gentrified, many of the same people are still there, or if not, their children and/or grandchildren. Oh, there's a few new faces, such as Gregor's friend, Bennis Hannaford, the best-selling author of fantasy novels, and Father Tibor, who escaped the Soviet menace -- finally -- but it's still a family.

Of course, in any family setting, there are always unpleasant aspects, but Gregor --a widower of 60 -- has lost the impatience of youth, and is content to think his way through the puzzles he is so frequently presented with.

DEADLY BELOVED is the story of marriage; Donna Moradanyan is about to marry Russ Donahue, finally, while in another suburb of Philadelphia, another marriage unwinds, surrounded by several others in precarious condition. In the gated community of Fox Run Hill, a husband is discovered shot to death in his bed. The most puzzling thing, however, is that the huge house has been stripped of everything that belonged to his wife, Patsy MacLaren Willis. A pipe bomb destroys her car, but she was not in it. Another bomb destroys the punchbowl at a political gathering, injuring Bennis and a woman who went to college with Patsy. The politician is yet another classmate. There are too many women, here.

Like a well-maintained and classic Rolls-Royce, Gregor moves in stately fashion through the labyrinth of deaths and injuries, sorting out the clues and non-clues with the help of Homicide detective John Jackman. Just in the nick of time, too, so Donna's wedding can proceed without a hitch. An invitation by Jane Haddam is one you shouldn't turn down - you'll miss a marvelous adventure. Characters, plot, and the writing are all first-class!

Papazoglou's strong suits are her descriptions of wacky characters and authentic local scenes. Among the idiosyncratic people we meet in this story are a fifty-five year old tattoed, coccaine-addict ex-prostitute and a thirty year old virgin famous for writing the sexiest books in the romance field. I should also mention the kleptomaniacal cat. The best New York descriotions include a special Greek restaurant and a trip through parts of 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue.

In this Papazoglou novel Patience McKenna is a romance writer attending The Third Annual Conference of the American Writers of Romance. A series of murders begins and Patience has to solve them in order to prove her own innocence. The mystery is a puzzle which includes a locked door and several clues to put together. The latter are mentioned as the story unfolds and then the solution is fully explained at the end.

Almost everyone on Cavanaugh Street seems to be getting into the spirit of Valentine's Day. Bennis' brother Christopher drops in for a visit, and begins a relationship with Lida, and even Hannah Krekorian has a new boyfriend...a once- popular figure in the 'recovery' movement whose wife died under mysterious circumstances.

Should be read after _Not a Creature Was Stirring_, which introduces Christopher and his gambling problem. By this point in the series, Chris has been to "Camp Boredom" (which was run by Hannah's boyfriend) and has his life straightened out.

Haddam takes on the 'recovery' movement in this volume. As Chris and Bennis put it in _Not a Creature Was Stirring_: C: I don't think I'm crazy because I've got Daddy's genes, and I don't think I'm crazy because Daddy warped my mind, either. I think I'm crazy because I'm a jerk. B: I don't think that kind of attitude is going to get us anywhere. C: I think it's going to get us a hell of a lot farther than the attitude I've been taking, which is that I just can't help myself, no explanations necessary.

Cannot get enough of Jane and her literate mystery books. Many times I am brought back to my days as a teen working in a Catholic rectory and the reality her characters display. Jane, if you're reading this, keep on keeping on. You are one of the few writers I have read that takes a leap and discusses serious issues in your book(s). You humanize your characters and culturize its inhabitants.

To get the most out of this, you should first read, at a minimum: _Not a Creature Was Stirring_ (introduces Gregor), _Precious Blood_ (introduces the Sisters of Divine Grace), and _A Great Day for the Deadly_ (a murder at their motherhouse). If you start with _Murder Superior_, you'll eliminate some suspects in the earlier cases.

Mother's Day on Cavanaugh Street is like the festival of a particularly fanatical cult :). Mother's Day in the convent focuses on Mary, the Mother of God. (Gregor sees children's artwork to that effect so much in this case, he feels like saying a novena, and he's Armenian Orthodox.)

The Sisters of Divine Grace are having a convention in Philadelphia, and Sisters are arriving from all over the world, including: Reverend Mother General and Sister Scholastica (of course), Sister Joan Esther from Alaska, Mother Andrew Loretta from Japan.

All of them loathe Mary Bellarmine, Mother Superior of the Southwestern Province. She's a middle-aged woman without a real vocation, who entered the order as a career. She's fantastic at funding and organizing building projects (e.g. new gymnasiums), and lousy at handling people. (Joan Esther requested a transfer to Alaska in the first place to get away from her.)

But when Gregor arrives to deliver his speech "Investigating the Catholic Murder", the woman who falls dead into his arms isn't Mary Bellarmine, but a nun everybody *liked*, who may have eaten something intended for Mary Bellarmine. And the chief investigating officer this time is an incompetent with political connections, who wants to make a big splash in the press without any unofficial consultants around. But when Reverend Mother General says jump, even the Archbishop of Philadelphia (who she taught in the 8th grade) says, how high? So Gregor's in for it, like it or not.

Interesting characters: nuns with personality (formidable nuns, cheerful young nuns; some read novels or sing Madonna lyrics while working); a radio talk-show host who specializes in offensive commentary with morning coffee, but who may not be a total loss; the dysfunctional marriage of two contributors to the order; men who just want to be protected from all the nuns. :) And, of course, the continuing lives of Gregor and his friends, and whether or not he and Bennis will ever get romantically involved.

Haddam's Demarkian mysteries are good despite the danger of the cutesy holiday premise. The ones with a religious setting such as this one are particularly good. Demarkian is particulary expert at wending his way thorugh tight-lipped communities with secrets of their own. An ex-FBI often called into consult on delicate cases and a murder in a Catholic church is more than delicate. Written with deft touch, respect for religious communities, and little saving humor.

The first person Father Tibor Kasparian has really hated since escaping from the Soviet Union is Dr. Donegal Steele, the pig who's the fly in the ointment for most of Independence College. Otherwise, teaching a semester of philosophy at Independence is a dream come true for Father Tibor: it's even what he was trained to do, once upon a time, even though teaching philosophy is what first got him into *so* much trouble. Father Tibor even has his first experience with pets, as Independence College has tame deer and even a talking raven (named Lenore, of course).

Two days before the Halloween bonfire - that is, two days before Tibor's friend Gregor Demarkian is due to make a guest lecture - Steele has disappeared. One half-joking rumor is that Jack Carroll, the soon-to-be-self-made law student whose tuition is cobbled together from scholarships and 30 hours a week in a body shop, finally beat the stuffing out of Steele for slandering Chessey Flint, Jack's girl. Steele's sexual harassment of various faculty and students is breathtakingly outrageous, and it doesn't seem to be blocking him from making a move for the post of chairman of the history department. Dr. Alice Elkinson, the youngest tenured faculty member and with the most serious reputation, would get it on merit if merit were considered, and her fiancee Ken Crockett would get it if the historical society got a vote, but Steele has written a popular (though tripey) book. Katherine Branch and her shadow, Vivi Wollman, are fretting that they are now professors without a department, since Women's Studies has had neither the popularity nor the academic rigor to survive at Independence, at least the way *they* teach it. The only person who is interested in locating Steele is Maryanne Veer, the department secretary; like everyone else, she doesn't *want* to see Steele, but a professor skipping out on his lecture and office hour schedule makes problems.

And when Gregor Demarkian and Bennis Hannaford are greeted with a case of lye poisoning over lunch in the Independence College cafeteria, it's Maryanne Veer who's the victim. Although she survives the attack, the damage done to her throat and voicebox effectively silences her for some time to come. And it's definitely an attack: the local sheriff can testify that Maryanne, having come from the wrong side of the tracks, knows too much about lye to attempt suicide with it; no other food in the cafeteria is contaminated, which rules out accident; and whatever food on her tray was spiked with lye disappeared while Gregor was giving first aid with his expertise on poisons.

Gregor and Tibor both have problems dealing with the students' childish antics and the other aspects of Halloween, each for his different reasons. Neither has much use for immaturity, and both have seen too much real violence to enjoy its illusion. (Gregor, of course, is a veteran of the FBI. Tibor, who up to this point in the series had been a peripheral supporting player, escaped from religious persecution in the old Soviet Union; his character, fleshed out much more here than in previous books, is definitely *not* just comic relief. 'Christianity and Constitutional Law, that was Father Tibor Kasparian.') Even Cavanaugh Street's illusions of Halloween drive Gregor up the wall, although for different reasons: nobody takes reasonable precautions. Only Bennis Hannaford, who is just now officially moving to Cavanaugh Street, takes Gregor seriously, and she says Lida and the other ladies only pat her on the head and say, Yes, dear - now that boy you were out with, is he responsible? :)

Finally, a brief overview of the supporting players. Katherine Branch is not a sympathetic character, but on the other hand, the parts of the story shown from her viewpoint make it clear that she's a phony. It's hard to believe a creep like Steele could survive so long in a public position, let alone on a college campus, even though it's his first semester: he's committed slander and sexual harassment, including *groping* a female student he didn't even know in front of a large audience. The story is saved because that's openly part of the problem Steele creates for other people - that he manages to get away with all the slimy things he does, and smear the muck on his victims rather than himself. The relationship between Chessey and Jack in the face of Steele's allegations is a major subplot: how to effectively quash Steele's rumor campaign against Chessey. Jack, as president of students, is also able to give Gregor some of the real lowdown on campus crime.

Good story, allowing for the fact that Steele couldn't get away with his antics unscathed on a real campus.

The five titles are, in order: Sweet, Savage Death; Wicked, Loving Murder; Death's Savage Passion; Rich, Radiant Slaughter; and Once And Always Murder. I have a few of the author's books written as Jane Haddam. These are lighter and funnier in tone. Except for the fifth book, they all skewer the publishing business, particularly Romance. (Now you know where the strange titles come from.)

The exerpt stops before the acid really starts. You should enjoy what Pay McKenna tells us she did with a past issue of "Writing". The descriptions (and dialog) are what make this book so much fun to read. You have unpleasant characters, losers, eccentrics, and insights into Romance Writers, not to mention the Hazards of Becoming/Being a Writer.

So who killed Michael Brookfield? Was it his Abusive Aunt Alida? One of his brothers? His aunt's right-hand woman, the terribly perfect Felicity Aldershot? Marty the Comptroller? Mrs. Haskell the Irate Client? Ivy the even more seriously screwed client? There is something definitely rotten at Writing Enterprises, and its not just their advice (or even Michael's corpse). If it weren't for her best friend, Phoebe, McKenna would love to walk out on it all.

Don't let the boring cover fool you. Even the original Crime Club dustjacket with the partial view of a person whose neck is wrapped around three times by a black ribbon with red hearts on it was more interesting -- and more fitting for such a funny book.

To get the most out of the series, you should first read, at a minimum, _Not a Creature Was Stirring_. One of the plot points in this book is that the murderer from that case is finally running out of appeals. Although the name is very carefully omitted, you'd be able to eliminate some of the suspects in the previous case if you read this book first.

When Father Tibor Kasparian emigrated to the United States from the old Soviet Union by way of Israel, Rabbi David Goldman sponsored him. Now the rabbi needs a couple of favors.

The more complicated favor is something that obviously must be done: helping a Hasidic temple in Philadelphia that's being harassed by some white supremecist group. Gregor gets in touch with an old friend at the FBI who tracks those groups for this one.

The simplest favor, unfortunately, is least to Gregor's taste, but all the ladies of Cavanaugh Street want him to do it: to appear as a guest on _The Lotte Goldman Show_ (hosted by the rabbi's elder sister) during their annual visit to Philadelphia. Worse, the other guest is a serial killer on loan from prison, one Herbert Shasta (fortunately, not somebody Gregor personally had to deal with, but bad enough). Mr. Shasta's presence immensely complicates things when one of the young men working for the show is found murdered backstage; Shasta didn't do it, but any defense attorney could use him for reasonable doubt.

As it happens, this is the 2nd murder the show has had in recent weeks: Maria Gonzalez, the former talent coordinator, was killed in New York. Is another serial killer present - this one on the staff of the show?

Festival of Deaths finds Gregor Demarkian thrust into the crazy world of a TV talk show. A young woman working for the show is killed in New York just before the show goes on the road to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, the violence continues, and Demarkian and John Jackman of the Philadelphia police sort it out. As usual, Jane Haddam spins a web around the murders consisting of an unusually large cast of characters and their lives and activities. Even minor characters are well drawn, and though there are clues to the solution of the mystery, they're well hidden and the reader is led astray in any number of subtle and entertaining ways. The whodunit in a Haddam novel is almost always a surprise, but the best part is getting to the end, one page at a time.

Gregor Demarkian, the retired FBI agent, is a man of reason, logic, intelligence and good will. Jane Haddam recognizes that life as it is lived reflects few of these qualities. The play in her works, which allow for her subtle ironic commentary, comes from the contrast of Gregor and the situations in which he finds himself. This time he is agrees to appear on an outrageous talk show--as favor to a friend--completely unaware of that he's agreed to appear center ring in America's favorite new circus.Hannukah, the season of light, that celebrates the survival of the oppressed, is the theme of this book. Haddam contrasts the cult of celebrity and the outrageous with the lives of those who work on the show, many of whom are among the poor and the marginalized. Well-done, thought-provoking and engagingly funny and ironic.

Jane Haddam has written 17 previous classic mysteries featuring Gregor Demarkian and Bennis Hannaford. This latest edition is so much more than a continuation of a wonderful series. People who behave this way in real life will undoubtedly refuse to recognize their characterizations, but I have to say, this is a completely "gut-wrenching" story, so intense that I needed periodic breaks just to convince myself that it WAS fiction.

"Somebody Else's Music" is the story of Elizabeth Toliver, once an outcast now a noted author, who returns to the town where she was raised to face the people who made her childhood a recurring nightmare . . . except that Elizabeth still has nightmares. Of course, there is a mystery to be solved, with Gregor and Bennis in attendance. As delightful as I always find Gregor and Bennis and their interactions that are such a compelling facet of Jane's series, they are not the story this time. This story faces the past and rips the cover-up away.

For every man, woman or child who has ever been the target of a bully: face them off, SEE them for what they are, and fling YOUR veil into a fountain!

Jane Haddam's Somebody Else's Music will keep you puzzled until the very end. The story begins with a murder set in the remote dark ages of high school. It haunts Elizabeth Tolliver, who was the odd girl out. When Tolliver returns to her hometown, the scene of the grand scale bullying and snubbing, death makes a fresh appearance. The perpetrators are all on hand; some are frozen in late 60's fashion. As entertaining as Somebody Else's Music is, it has the quality of truth. It touches on the cruelty that has been a part of school life at least since Tom Brown's school days and probably in the schools of ancient scribes.

Not one of Haddam's fascinating holiday mysteries, some of the cast from Cavanaugh Street do appear with retired FBI Gregor Demarkian. Like Harry Kemmelman, Dick Francis, and Tony Hillerman Haddam not only tells a story she creates a world. This novel is not just another entry into the bibliography of the genere. It has the quality of literature and uncovers the darker side of idolized small town life.

Unfortunately, most of the people in Jane Haddam's new book do - all too well. Gregor Demarkian must leave Cavanaugh Street in Philadelphia for a small country town in the Pennsylvania hills (cell phones don't work there because of the mountains). Although 30 years has passed since Betsy Toliver was locked in an outhouse with snakes, neither she nor the perpetrators of this indignity have forgetten - or forgiven. Jane Haddam creates a world of adolescence never outgrown that quite frankly gave me the creeps. The psychological horror unfolds page by page and just when you think you realize what's going on, the plot takes another twist. I loved seeing Demarkian so out of his element. I would have liked more of Bennis, though.