[.ca] Death in a Beach Chair (ISBN 0449007197)

Strong Addition to a Delightful Series:
Mid-January in Hancock, Connecticut, finds Susan Henshaw fighting a bad case of winter blahs and game for anything that doesn't involve snow, slush or sub-zero temps. When her close friend, Kathleen Gordon (second wife of Jed Henshaw's longtime pal and co-worker at the ad agency, Jerry Gordon) mentions the magic words, tropical vacation! faster than you can say Google, Susan hits the Internet and emerges with reservations for four at Compass Bay, a small but posh resort on a tiny island in the Caribbean. After their plans to travel as couples hit a snag, the Henshaws arrive a day late to find the resort exactly as lovely and luxurious as advertised but something seriously amiss with the Gordon's presumably happy marriage. Jerry seems preoccupied, remote and entirely too interested in glamorous, single guest Allison McAllister to suit an increasingly grumpy and worried Kathleen who is afraid that Jerry may be having second thoughts about remarrying and starting a new family with her after the tragic deaths of his first wife and children some years ago. Practically before she can unpack her suitcase, Susan finds herself confronted with a case of murder: Allison's strangled body has been discovered in the resort's beachfront gazebo. Once the exotic blonde is identified as Jerry's no-longer-frumpy, former sister-in-law...who's popped up out of the blue and apparently trailed him to Compass Bay...the local police are disinclined to look any further for their killer. With Jerry locked up at the local embassy in lieu of jail and Kathleen the victim of a sudden attack, Susan substitutes sleuthing for snorkeling until unresolved mysteries from the past suddenly make all too perfect sense in the present and the real murderer can be exposed. So many series 'cozies' that I read are long on fluff and short on substance, but Valerie Wolzien's 'Susan Henshaw' novels are delightfully meaty. She has a refreshing knack for creating warm, believable characters and then enmeshing them in intriguing predicaments which always encourage her readers to tag along while her protagonists ingeniously manage to extricate themselves from whatever pitfalls she's devised to test them during their various investigations. "Death in a Beach Chair" is a fine blend of clever dialogue and suspenseful action with a minimum of gore...a grand cure for winter doldrums or very pleasant company on a lazy summer day at the beach.

I'm really thinking a 3 1/2, not bad, but she does better:
I was kind of disappointed in this latest Susan Henshaw mystery. While it was nice to see the four main characters again, the story line was not as strong as usual. This is not to say that I didn't like the book. Susan, Jed, Kathleen, and Jerry go to a Carribbean island for a vacation. Jerry and Kathleen seem to be having marital problems. It turns out that his ex sister in law is on the island also. She tells everyone that she is having an affair with Jerry. She also tells every one that she will die a tragic death. She does. Jerry is arrested. Everyone expects Susan to clear him. The characters as usual, are very interesting and well developed. The mystery is problematic. All of a sudden they all want Susan to solve the crime. Other than Kathleen, everyone discouraged her before. The other thing that bothers me is that Jerry wanders off for hours at a time and no one questions him at all? I just didn't get it. Hopefully the next one will be back to usual.

Fun and Entertaining:
I'm a fan of Valerie Wolzien's books and I found this to be one of the most enjoyable of the series. As always, Susan Henshaw makes for entertaining company. She's got a keen eye for people as well as mystery, and I love sharing in her adventures and observations. This time out, I got to go along on a Caribbean vacation, which was great fun. Colorful supporting characters, humor, and a puzzling mystery all add up to an enjoyable read.

Fun Read for Your Vacation:
Amateur sleuth, Susan Henshaw, her loving husband Jed, and her closest friends, Kathleen and Jerry Gordon, couldn't be more excited about heading to Compass Bay, a tiny Caribbean Resort filled with luxury. Rum punch, quaint, yet beautiful cottages for all vacationers, blue water, white sand, and a gorgeous, single, blonde occupying the premises. However, the vacation isn't all that it was supposed to be. Kathleen and Jerry are having marital problems, putting a huge damper on the trip, and when the gorgeous blonde turns up dead, a huge secret comes out. The victim was actually the once overweight, frumpy sister of Jerry's previous wife. Years ago, Susan, Jed, and Jerry knew her well, which is why the island police don't believe that it's a mere coincidence for them to show up at Compass Bay at the same exact time as the blonde. Susan doesn't think it's a coincidence either, which sends her into overdrive, and ready to sniff out the caper. Since I have been a huge fan of the Susan Henshaw Mystery series for years, I was ecstatic to find that DEATH IN A BEACH CHAIR had been released, and raced to the local Barnes & Noble to purchase it. I was not disappointed. The mystery is both enticing, and exciting at the same time, and keeps you turning the pages, dying to find out who the true killer is. Susan, as usual, is up to her old tricks (i.e. shopping and sleuthing), and is just as likeable than ever in this installation of her glamorous, and sometimes deadly life. While this is a great read for anytime of the year, I recommend taking it with you if your headed on vacation, as it's a great book to read while lounging by the pool, and relaxing. Erika Sorocco

As a fan of the Susan Henshaw mysteries...:
....I found this one to be my least favorite. Mostly, it was just annoying. By the middle of the book I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. The story was sort of muddled with odd useless stuff, like the cryptic messages from the person suspected of the murder, to the behavior of the suspected murderer's wife. Even Susan and Jed weren't particularly likeable. All in all, not Valerie Wolzien's best work.