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Avg. Rating: 4.7
Loved it!
Jane and Shelley always work better for me when they're at home, with the kids, and the neighbors, and the daily disasters. This time, Jane is frantically trying to pull together not one, but two holiday parties, keep the kids on an even keel, and deal with an unexpected house guest in the form of Mel's mother, dumped on her without warning. Add to that a muck-raking, or muck-inventing local TV reporter, who falls, or is pushed? to his death from the roof next door, a pair of "hillbillies" with the worst taste in the world, and you have another great Jane Jeffry adventure. Particularly touching was Jane's evening making ornaments with her teenage daughter, a sweet lull in the usual mom-daughter running battle. Don't miss this one!
The witty dialog between Jane and Shelly is worth the price
Although it is the holiday season, Jane Jeffry feels more harried than merry. On Friday night, she is hosting a caroling party. On Saturday, she is giving a cookie exchange party for the nrighborhood. On top of all that, she must meet the mother of her lover for the first time. To make matters worse for Jane, a well-meaning neighbor informs Jane that she has invited the scandal mongering reporter, Lance "The Merchant of Menace" King to cover the event and the tabloid journalist accepts the offer.Though she prefers he did not, Lance arrives at the caroling party. Broadcasting from Jane's home, he hints to his TV audience that on his next show he will reveal a scandal here in suburbia. Later that evening, Jane looks out her window and sees Lance's body impaled on the antler of a reindeer in her neighbor's yard. The police believe a homicide occurred, as there is evidence the man was pushed from a rooftop. Jane believes that one of her guests wanted to silence Lance before his next show. As she has done before with her friend Shelly, Jane begins to investigate the murder. The ninth entry in the Jeffry mystery series is funny, witty, and an example of how well written dialog can turn a good story line a great novel. The repartee between Jane and Shelly is some of the best interplay since Lucy and Ethel. With her jocular THE MERCHANT OF MENACE, Jill Churchill has sold the idea that suburbia can be an exciting place. Harriet Klausner
One of her best!
Jill Churchill wins again, with another suburban mystery. In Merchant of Menace, the mystery arises out of, and fits seamlessly into, Jane Jeffry's suburban milieu. Who did kill the sleazy tv expose reporter? And why? And what's up with the hillbillies who moved in next door and their wonderfully tacky Christmas decorations? The neighborhood events, the recurring characters, including some neighbors we've seen before, like the inimitable Susie, even Jane's potential mother-in-law, all ring hilariously true. I'd love to have seen more of Mel's mother, though. Seems like there should have been a denouement to the simmering conflict between them. Maybe we'll see her again some day? (Some book?)
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