โ Scribed by Jane Haddam
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Demarkian attempts a good deed on Valentineโs Day: saving a neighbor from jail
Psychiatrist Paul Hazzard was renowned for his insights into the human mind, until his wife was savagely murdered. She was stabbed to death with an ornamental dagger, a grisly crime for which Paul was tried but never convicted. Four years later, to escape his greedy family and his former mistress, Paul takes an unlikely lover: the homely, middle-aged Hannah Krekorian. Hannahโs neighbors, including former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian, are charmed by the sudden romanceโuntil they find her holding an antique dagger over Paulโs bloody body.
The police are convinced of Hannahโs guilt, but Demarkian knows his neighbor could never stab Paul to death. Hannahโs valentine may be gone, but if Gregor works a miracle, sheโll have something even better come February 14th: her freedom.
Charmingly original, with the occasional cuteness redeemed by a suddenly exposed hard edge, Haddam's ninth Gregor Demarkian holiday mystery begins in February on the busy streets of an Armenian neighborhood in Philadelphia. Tongues wag when 58-year-old Hannah Krekorian takes up with Paul Hazzard, a psychologist famous for his books and his seminars and for the nasty death of his wife four years earlier, a crime for which he was tried but never convicted. When Hazzard is murdered in Hannah's bedroom, his blood staining the same ornamental dagger that also figured in his wife's death, Hannah is an immediate suspect. Series hero Gregor, a former FBI agent, takes up Hannah's cause and casts his eye on the dead man's magnificently dysfunctional trio of grown-up children and his former mistress, who is soon to publish a tell-all tale. Aiding Gregor is his no-nonsense lover, fantasy writer Bennis Hannaford. While Gregor considers the unusual entry wounds on Hazzard's body and those featured on the next victim, the author details several believable romances that flourish and flounder on Cavanaugh Street. Never quite cozy and never quite tough, this tale combines the best of both styles to stunning effect.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Haddam, too, condenses time when she "continues" a four-year-old Philadelphia murder case with a new, related murder. After writer Paul Hazzard's wife dies of stab wounds, everyone thinks he did it: now, someone kills Paul, with the same unusual knife. Another inhabitant of their Armenian neighborhood, Gregor Demarkian, attempts to solve the mystery. The author's psychologically detailed, self-consciously literate foray into a small community should fare well with series fans.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Mysteries
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