The Burnt Orange Sunrise

Its means, dear boy, that it is always a mistake to predict one's own future. Because if you can imagine it happening, if it is rational and makes good sense to you, then that is not what will happen."
"What will?"
"Life will."


Or death will. Nonagenarian Ada Geiger is speaking to her grandson and neither of them know what is in store for them except that the weather man has been right for a change and they are in the midst of a terrible ice storm that is to be followed by several inches of snow. They both have come to Astrid's Castle near the coast of Connecticut. They were meant be part of a large party of the glitterati who were gathering from both the East and West Coast to celebrate Ada's return from France. But now this is a party show more for murder show less

A classic snowed-in mystery, with a tinge of "And Then There Were None" (that was mentioned several times, actually). A variety of characters, some Hollywood types, some merely related to them, trapped in an historic castle hotel during one of the worst storm of the winter. Mitch and Des are two of the guests, of course, and each gets to play to their strengths: movie criticism and murder investigation.

The character of Ada was great - a woman old enough to no longer care at all what anyone else thinks - and she didn't care all that much to start with. The way she runs roughshod over anyone not willing to stand up to her was quite amusing. The other media people were a touch stereotypical, although at least one was made much more human show more as the book progressed.

Thoroughly enjoyable. show less

Berger and Mitry mystery number four, in which Mitch, a New York film critic and Desiree, the resident state trooper, end up at big old Victorian inn, trapped during a winter ice and snow storm that topples trees, causes power lines to be down and generally makes things miserable. Even moreso when there are two deaths—the first thought to be heart failure of the inn’s proprietor. But when her mother, a feisty and unconventional famous ninety-two-year-old filmmaker and photographer whom the people present at the inn had gathered to honor ends up strangled to death, Des realizes that the first death is probably not natural, either. Mitch conjures up thoughts of the old Agatha Christie movie “And Then There Were None,” as they have show more no way out of the inn and no way for the crime scene investigators or detectives to get in until the storm breaks. A houseful of suspects, all with secrets and possible reasons for doing in the mother-and-daughter combo—and then, Mitch is clonked on the head and comes to next to another dead body! But which one did it?? Well, I figured it out pretty easily, and well in advance. This book didn’t enthrall me nearly as much as the previous ones in the series did. It was still a good read, but I was not impressed by all the celebrity name-dropping claptrap early on in the book—which I suppose is to be expected, since Mitch IS a film critic. Still, I am not fond of Hollywood hype stuff. It was still a decent read, and I do like these characters, but they just seemed a bit “off” in this installment. Or maybe I was off! Anyway, I didn’t enjoy it as much. show less