How to Murder the Man of Your Dreams

This book does not live up to its fun & quirky title.

There is absolutely no sleuthing involved in this “mystery”. The primary murder doesn’t occur until the penultimate chapter, and the protagonist realizes almost immediately who did it. Although several deaths occur throughout the book, no one is particularly concerned about them.

Most of the tedious narrative centers on the day to day life of Ellie Haskell: her insecurities, her household chores, her attempt to restart her career, and her quotidian participation in village life. By her side is her oversexed husband Ben who spends most of the book trying to come up with ploys to get himself laid, and then sulks when his plans fizzle because Ellie has other things on her mind. show more Ellie herself lives in perpetual dread that someone will find out that she & Ben met via an escort service.

And there is a brainless Alpine nanny complete with dirndl and braided hair yodeling nonsense throughout the story.

If you’ve been dying to read 230+ pages detailing the inner thoughts of a middle aged woman who is convinced she is fat & worthless, this is the book you’ve been waiting for; everyone else will want to give it a miss. show less

After the mysterious death of the local librarian in Chitterdon Fells the Library League decides to place a bust of the deceased woman in the library. Ellie, who has just hired an au pair for her twins, agrees to contact romance paperback model Karisma to ask if he will appear in a fundraising event. In an apparent accident, Karisma meets his maker in the library. Ellie doubts that the rash of deaths in her small community is just bad luck and, setting her mind to it, finds no shortage of murder suspects. This is a cozy-style mystery: written about the happenings in a small village, with a lot of emphasis on the characters. It has a good deal of dry humor - sometimes so dry you almost miss it. The mystery itself is confusing -- lots of show more people die, but not necessarily of unnatural causes; the depiction of the village's two librarians is stereotypical; and two of Cannell's best characters, Freddy and Jonas, are not here -- they are away on a camping trip! This is still a fun read, if you enjoy the British sense of humor. show less

couldn't get into it and didn't finish it.

Ellie finds herseld involved in hosting the pin up models for romance novels. Love seems to be in the air, but murder is also. The library ghost seems to be the one involved.