Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 0-06-076365-5

The Body in the Ivy is described as an homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. For those of you who have forgotten your classics, this is the book in which a bunch of strangers are invited to a deserted island and bumped off one by one. It is also the book that taught us to be suspicious of dead people. In mysteries there is dead – and then there is really dead.

The twist in this book is that the host and the guests went to a womens’ college together years ago but lost touch after graduation. The body of the host’s twin sister was found at the bottom of a tower on campus, a presumed suicide, during graduation weekend. The host has never believed it was suicide and has gathered together her old classmates to try to find a murderer.

Enter the caterer. Needing someone to cater this little party, the host calls on our heroine Faith Fairchild. Faith and the guests are all surprised when they find out the real purpose of their visit to the island, tempers flare, and soon the bodies start piling up.

Unfortunately, The Body in the Ivy isn’t much of a mystery. Much of the book is taken up with flashbacks to college days that explore the womens’ motives for murder, but no other clues are introduced. As a novel exploring how a young woman can ruin the lives of her friends it is interesting, but as a mystery, it is a dud.

The writing is good, the food sounds good, and the descriptions of life at a womens’ college are interesting (the author went to one in real life). But Faith doesn’t appear much in the book and I think fans or readers expecting a mystery will be disappointed.

Favorite character? The breakfast muffins. Where is the recipe for those? Did I guess it? No – there were no clues. Will I read another? Maybe.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

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