Intensive Scare Unit (Sarah Deane Mysteries) - Hardcover

Borthwick, J. S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312324944 ISBN 13: 9780312324940

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2004

Synopsis

During an especially cold, rainy May, three families move to the recently opened Ocean Tide community on the coast of Maine. Not long after their arrival, a decaying corpse is found lying in the rough of their beautifully manicured golf course-disrupting the idyllic community.

When a second body is discovered in a fertilizer shed, just yards away from the seventeenth green, the local authorities are puzzled over the sudden rash of dead bodies and their link to Ocean Tide's newest arrivals.

Despite her own misgivings and her husband Alex's warnings, Sarah Deane, an English professor and sometime amateur sleuth, becomes entangled in the investigation. What she uncovers promises to rock the very foundation of the Ocean Tide community.

J. S. Borthwick keeps us guessing with another sharp and literate Sarah Deane mystery.

About this title

About the Author

J. S. Bortwick lives with her family on the Maine coast, where many of her mysteries are set.

Reviews

In Borthwick's appealing 12th outing to feature English professor and amateur sleuth Sarah Deane (after 2002's Murder in the Rough), Sarah's 74-year-old cantankerous aunt, Julia Clancy, proprietor of the High Hope horse farm, suffers a heart attack and has to have open heart surgery at the hospital in nearby Bowmouth, Maine. If that weren't enough, the recovering Julia's the last person to see a patient alive before he's found strangled in the lavatory, and then a shadowy figure in hospital garb slips into her room and tries to strangle her. Some believe the attack is merely Julia's post-operative delusion, but Sarah is convinced that her aunt is telling the truth and agrees to do some research. When another patient is murdered, even the police no longer doubt Aunt Julia's claim. The many suspects-doctors, nurses and volunteers, all of whom have access to the patients and dress pretty much alike-complicate Sarah's task. Like brewing a proper pot of tea, Borthwick takes her time putting the puzzle together, developing each character and unraveling their motives and relationships. The dramatic conclusion adds some spice, as does a dose of horse lore. Cozy fans who relish a nice cup of tea and a good book to go with it will be completely satisfied.
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One would hardly think of the Mary Starbox Hospital in Bowmouth, Maine, as a hotbed of murder and mayhem. But when Julia Clancy, independent, no-nonsense horsewoman on the shady side of 70, has a heart attack, almost the first thing she witnesses is the murder of an elderly and deeply hated doctor. When that doctor's son, head of the hospital, is also murdered, and an attempt is made on Julia's life, her niece Sarah, whose husband is Julia's doctor, takes some time out from teaching English literature at the local college to assist in untangling local gossip and hospital lore. There is a great deal here about interrelationships in a small town: who is related to whom; how the local cafe and the police department and the hospital all interconnect. There is also rather more than one might want to know about just what happens to a heart-attack victim at all stages, from diagnosis to surgery to recovery. Borthwick has a sharp eye and a good ear, and her characters are lively if not deep. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312324944
• ISBN 13: 9780312324940
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384