Maid of Murder (India Hayes Mystery, #1)

by Amanda Flower

India Hayes is a lot of things . . . starving artist who pays the rent as a college librarian, daughter of liberal activists, sister of an emotional mathematician, tenant of a landlady who has kissed the Blarney Stone one too many times, and a bridesmaid six times over. But she's about to step into the most challenging role of her life: amateur sleuth.
Childhood friend and now knockout beauty, Olivia Blocken is back in town to wed her bodybuilder fianc with India a reluctant attendant . . . not just because the bridesmaid's dress is a hideous mess, but because she's betraying her brother. Mark still carries a torch for the bride who once broke his heart and sent his life into a tailspin.

• ISBN10: 1594148643
• ISBN13: 9781594148644
• Publish Date: 16 June 2010
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 10 February 2014
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Cengage Learning, Inc
• Imprint: Five Star
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 281
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

First, on the cover of this book Kirkus Reviews compares this new series to Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series. This book in no way, shape, or form resembles a Meg Langslow book. The main characters' family was neither quirky nor eccentric, merely dysfunctional. I didn't find them charming at all. Her brother merely came across as sad and pathetic. The rest of the characters in the book were also not all that likeable - it felt as though the author just went that little bit too far with each of them. And the hint of a love interest is only described as having an incredibly annoying, braying, laugh. I'm supposed to want this attraction to happen?

The plot itself was good enough - a very effective red herring had me sure the murderer was someone else until the very end. I've already bought the second book, so I'll give it a read and hope that the first-book kinks have been worked out and the author as well as the characters, have grown.