Jane Jeffry and her neighbor Shelley Nowack decide to attend a writer's workshop being held in a nearby hotel/convention center. The best thing is that they get to stay in a big fancy suite, as Shelley's husbsnd owns part of the hotel. Jane is nearly done writing her historical mystery and dearly wants to present it for possible publication, plus she wants to learn more tips of the writing trade. As luck would have it they meet one of Jane's favorite writers and become friends with her. She gives Jane a few tips on meeting with publishers, and warns them about an unidentified online muck raker, who enjoys stirring up trouble at these conventions. Weird things start happening right from the beginning: a pair of loud obnoxious costumed conventioneers disrupt the peace, a publisher ends up in the hospital, and a literary critic is attacked. Jane is determined to figure out what is going on in this otherwise enjoyable convention. I always enjoy the character Jane and Shelley. This was a very fast, sometimes hilarious, but mostly humdrum read. The ending was rather anti-climatic. I'm glad it was a short book. ( )

rather dull mystery set at con

I had an inkling whodunit and I was right! ( )

Not much of a mystery or who dunnit in this; however, it was easy to listen to while walking for fitness. The reader was very good. Jane and her friend Shelley go to a mystery book sellers convention with the idea that Jane will hopefully meet some editors to help her get published. ( )

In this disappointing entry in a usually reliable series, Jane Jeffrey has finished writing a novel and is hoping to get it published, so she and her friend Shelley Nowack attend a mystery writer's convention, and, before they know it they are investigating the poisoning of an agent, an attack on a reviewer, and a case of plagiarism.

Among other things, this book lacks continuity. In past books in this series, Jane is portrayed as being quite frugal, not willing to part with her ancient station wagon, even though it is falling apart. All of a sudden, Jane has a completely different attitude, not only willing to buy a new jeep, but have the pothole in her driveway repaired, and buys cell phones for herself and two of her children. Her decision to buy the jeep would have worked much better if it was developed throughout the course of the book and she bought the jeep at the end of the book.

Newcomers to the series will wonder how Jane, a single mother, with no apparent job, has so much money. Churchill has always explained this, and what happened to Jane's husband, in a few simple sentences in past books, and should have done it her. Jane's decision to leave her two youngest children home alone, although they are old enough to be left alone, was a decision she would have agonized about in past books and it came too easily in this one.

I did enjoy the parts about the convention, reading it, I felt like I was there. But the book felt thrown together, as if Churchill was meeting a deadline. More time should have been spent developing the characters, several of which, particularly Vernetta are written so broadly that they are unbelievable. The mystery itself is practically non-existent; the book is more about the convention than the two attacks, neither of which is fatal.

The Jane Jeffrey mysteries are usually quite good. Newcomers to the series should not let one weak entry keep them from reading the rest of the series. ( )