Death on Demand Mystery

26 primary works • 27 total works

Dead by Midnight

by Carolyn Hart

Published 29 March 2011

Solving puzzles comes naturally to Annie Darling, cheerful owner of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore on the lovely sea island of Broward's Rock. Annie is aided and abetted by her admiring husband, Max, who runs an unusual business that offers help to people in trouble. A recent death appears to be suicide, but Annie suspects murder. 

To solve the case, she unravels the mystery of a towel hidden at midnight in a gazebo, the lack of fingerprints on a crystal mug, blood on a teenager's blue shirt, and the secret of a lovers' tryst. Annie believes she has set the perfect trap for a merciless killer until her cell phone rings and Death whispers in her ear.

Death Comes Silently

by Carolyn Hart

Published 3 April 2012

Winter has arrived in Broward's Rock, South Carolina, and business has slowed for Annie Darling, owner of mystery bookstore Death on Demand. So when the island's resident writer publishes the latest in her popular mystery series, Annie jumps at the chance to host a book signing, even though it conflicts with her shift at the local charity shop, Better Tomorrow.

Luckily, fellow volunteer Gretchen Burkholt agrees to sub for her. The signing goes well, but Gretchen interrupts the event multiple times, leaving voice mails about scandalous news she's dying to share. Even though Gretchen tends to be excitable, Annie heads over to Better Tomorrow, where she finds Gretchen dead on the floor, an axe by her side.

Annie enlists the help of her husband, Max, to piece together a puzzle involving an overturned kayak, a stolen motorboat, a troubled love affair, and a reckless teenager. And she must tread carefully in her investigation, because a killer is on the loose, and that killer works well in the foggy days of winter...

Dead, White, and Blue

by Carolyn G. Hart

Published 7 May 2013

Bookstore owner Annie Darling’s life is all about murder mysteries: reading them, selling them—and solving them…

Summer is a hectic time for Annie and her husband, Max. Sun and scorching temperatures never fail to bring swarms of tourists to their mystery bookstore, Death on Demand, for the latest beach reads. Not to mention the whole island is buzzing with excitement over the upcoming Broward’s Rock Fourth of July dance.

Shell Hurst is the kind of woman wives hate—for good reason—and most of them wish she would just disappear. But when she does—last seen walking into the pine trees during the Fourth of July fireworks display—Annie can’t help but feel like someone should be looking for her.

Annie and Max are soon following a twisted trail marked by blackmail, betrayal, and adultery, winding from the corridors of the island’s lovely inn to a pier lashed by pelting rain, to a gathering on the terrace of a country club where a trap is set for a calculating killer…

Death at the Door

by Carolyn Hart

Published 6 May 2014

"Annie Darling--owner of the mystery bookstore, Death on Demand--prefers fictional crimes as opposed to the real things. But in one tragic week, two acts of violence shake the island community of Broward's Rock. First, a beloved doctor is found shot dead, seemingly by his own hand. Only days later, a local artist is arrested after his wife is found murdered, bludgeoned by her husband's sculpting mallet. Convinced her brother did not commit suicide, the doctor's sister turns to Annie and her husband, Max, for help. She has found a cryptic sketch her brother drew, linking him with the murdered woman. Did someone want them both out of the picture? With the police considering both cases as good as closed, it's up to Annie and Max to sort through a rogues' gallery of suspects to see if someone is trying to frame the artist. But if Annie isn't careful, she may find herself having her own brush with death."--

Don't Go Home

by Carolyn Hart

Published 5 May 2015

"Annie Darling, owner of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore, is hosting a party to celebrate successful Southern literary icon--and former Broward's Rock resident--Alex Griffith and his bestselling new novel, Don't Go Home. But after the local paper announces that Griffith aims to reveal the real-life inspirations behind his characters, perhaps the author should take his own advice. Not everyone in town is ready to give him a glowing review"--Amazon.com.

Walking on My Grave

by Carolyn Hart

Published 3 May 2017

"Annie's friend and fellow shop owner Ves Roundtree is a very wealthy woman. Her rich brother entrusted her with his estate, and upon her death, his fortune is to be divided. Several cash-strapped islanders are in line to collect life-changing inheritances. The problem is, Ves is very much alive. Ves hosts a dinner for the prospective beneficiaries and feels a chill in the air that has nothing to do with the wintry season. Not long after, she suffers a bad fall that was no accident. Everyone at the table had a motive but not a shred of evidence was left behind. When one of the suspects is found floating in the harbor and Ves disappears, Annie and her husband Max spring into action to catch a calculating killer before greed takes another life."

Death on Demand/Design for Murder

by Carolyn Hart

Published 30 September 2008

In Death on demand, Annie Darling is thrilled at the opportunity to visit Golden Silk, the luxurious private island estate of wealthy Jeremiah Addison. She leaves her bookstore in the hands of her employees and sets sail from Broward's Rock with her husband, Max. Unfortunately, Addison himself won't be there to greet them, since he is, at present, quite dead. After tampering with evidence that suggests the widely despised curmudgeon's death was no accident, Addison's sister-in-law, Britt Barlow, is inviting back everyone who was in attendance during the victim's last weekend, as well as locally known sleuth Max Darling, whom Britt has hired to uncover the killer. And, of course, Annie wouldn't miss this party for the world! There is no lack of suspects among the guests gathered on Golden Silk. Each had a substantial motive for wanting to do in their late host, from disinherited sons to the cuckolded husband of an adulterous politician to a jilted girlfriend who dreamed of being the next Mrs. A. to a scandal-mongering TV investigative reporter with a talent for character assassination and, quite possibly, blackmail. In Design for murder, Annie is asked to stage a murder for the annual spring house tour sponsored by the Historical Society of Chastain, South Carolina. Her only problem is deciding which fictional murder to stage -- until a corpse turns up in the town pond -- and Annie is singled out as the murderer. Annie had hoped to clear her name with Max's help -- until her chief witness is also murdered. Design for murder is the second Annie Laurance/Max Darling mystery.