Don't Go Home (Death on Demand Mystery, #25)

by Carolyn Hart

[MurderByDeath]

25 books in, and Hart still writes a fairly decent murder mystery.     Annie is flying solo for the first time, as Max has gone fishing for a week, and even the three stooges (long-time recurring characters that include her mother-in-law, a best-selling island author, and Annie's best customer) are off cruising the Mississippi.  This group exodus allows Annie to work with her friend and island crime reporter Marian Kenyon, who has a very personal interest in the latest murder.   Hart is an excellent author, if at times a bit too emotional for my tastes, and most of the time disturbingly good at plotting a crime.  This is one of her few books where I was able to single out the murderer before the denouement, but her writing is so atmospheric and her characters are so vivid that knowing whodunnit doesn't ding my enjoyment of the story.  What did was the introspective angst and a morally questionable stunt at the end.  If it had been developed a little more carefully and allowed to build up naturally along with the story, it would have made an excellent springboard for a 'does the end justify the means?' discussion, but whether by design or by poor editing, it felt tacked on instead, leaving it firmly in the 'stunt' category.   After 25 books, I'm too heavily invested in this series to quit, but I'm crossing my fingers that the 26th will be a stronger showing.