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Maid of Murder (India Hayes Mystery #1)
by
Amanda Flower (Goodreads Author)
2010 Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel
In MAID OF MURDER, India Hayes, a college librarian and reluctant bridesmaid, is thrown into the role of amateur sleuth as she hunts down the person who murdered her childhood friend and framed her brother for the crime.
When bride-to-be Olivia turns up dead in the Martin College fountain and the evidence points to India's broth...more
In MAID OF MURDER, India Hayes, a college librarian and reluctant bridesmaid, is thrown into the role of amateur sleuth as she hunts down the person who murdered her childhood friend and framed her brother for the crime.
When bride-to-be Olivia turns up dead in the Martin College fountain and the evidence points to India's broth...more
Hardcover, 281 pages
Published
June 16th 2010
by Five Star (ME)
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Mar 26, 2010
Lisa
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those who enjoy "Chick Lit" as well as mysteries
Mystery lovers, meet India Hayes: artist, librarian, friend, sister, daughter, bridesmaid, and soon to be amateur detective. After agreeing to serve as a bridesmaid (ugly dress and all) for her childhood friend Olivia, India is torn between family and friendship loyalties, as India's brother Mark still carries a torch for his ex-girlfriend Olivia. When the wedding is canceled and a funeral scheduled instead, the cops cry murder and Mark is the prime suspect. It's up to India to come to her broth...more
India Hayes is a librarian in a small town. Single, she lives with her cat, and her elderly landlord neighbor, Ina, born again Irish believer, keeps her on her toes. Ina keeps leprechauns and pots of gold scattered on her yard, names the statues, and religiously rotates them.
Back in the day when they were younger, India's friend Olivia dated her brother Mark. Mark is a math geek, but fell in love with Olivia. Unfortunately for Mark, he was the rebound guy, and Olivia coldly cast him away. Mark...more
Back in the day when they were younger, India's friend Olivia dated her brother Mark. Mark is a math geek, but fell in love with Olivia. Unfortunately for Mark, he was the rebound guy, and Olivia coldly cast him away. Mark...more
I always enjoy picking up a mystery book! Whether it's a complex "whodunnit" that is sure to surprise or a cozy mystery with humor and other interesting tangential side plots, I can't help wanting to try to solve the crime before the culprit is revealed.
Amanda Flower's Maid of Murder certainly falls more into the cozy mystery category, with more than its share of quirky characters and amateur sleuthing by India Hayes. Sprinkled with humor and wit, this book tells the story of a tragic pre-weddin...more
Amanda Flower's Maid of Murder certainly falls more into the cozy mystery category, with more than its share of quirky characters and amateur sleuthing by India Hayes. Sprinkled with humor and wit, this book tells the story of a tragic pre-weddin...more
I first heard of Maid of Murder because it was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery. I like cozy mysteries, and Amanda Flowers has set up a good environment for a cozy series. India Hayes is a college librarian in a small Ohio town. Her mother is a Presbyterian minister; her father is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of an accident; both her parents are extreme social activists who will organize a protest at the drop of a non-PC hat; her brother Mark is a math professor...more
Jul 21, 2010
The Book Maven
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Librarians and Cozy Mystery lovers
My instinct is to give this book three stars, but the librarian bias is coming out here. I'll give Maid of Murder four stars for the potential it almost achieves.
I'll start by saying cozy mysteries are not this librarian's thing. I'm more of the dark, violent, cussing-up-a-storm crime novel reading type. So at times the cozy aspect was annoyingly hokey. But not everyone has the sailor vocabulary that I do, and I'm all about diversity. Once I moved past the wee bit of hokeyness, I, well, moved o...more
I'll start by saying cozy mysteries are not this librarian's thing. I'm more of the dark, violent, cussing-up-a-storm crime novel reading type. So at times the cozy aspect was annoyingly hokey. But not everyone has the sailor vocabulary that I do, and I'm all about diversity. Once I moved past the wee bit of hokeyness, I, well, moved o...more
With a cast of wacky characters and a small-college-town backdrop, Maid of Murder isn't your typical murder mystery (at least, not the kind that I generally read). In fact, it felt more like watching a wacky murder mystery TV show like Psych than like reading an Agatha Christie novel.
India Hayes works at the library at a small liberal arts college in the middle of Ohio. When her childhood friend Olivia returns to get married, India is coerced into being a bridesmaid and will have to wear an incr...more
India Hayes works at the library at a small liberal arts college in the middle of Ohio. When her childhood friend Olivia returns to get married, India is coerced into being a bridesmaid and will have to wear an incr...more
India Hayes has been a bridesmaid several times already (but never the bride), but this wedding may be the most exciting yet. The bride—a childhood friend of India’s—Olivia Blocken is killed just before her wedding and the main culprit is her brother who asked Olivia to meet him by the fountain just before her death. All the trails lead up to Mark: ex-boyfriend still pining for Olivia and a rendezvous that led to death, but India is determined that Mark had nothing to do with Olivia’s death.
Mai...more
Mai...more
India Hayes is a small town college librarian surrounded by unusual characters which include her neighbors and family. When a childhood friend turns up dead, all fingers point at India’s brother.
Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower is the first of what I hope is a long list of India Hayes mysteries. The story is a wonderfully entertaining cozy mystery. India‘s character is likeable and has an admirable tolerance level for her radical parents and rather eccentric neighbor. She also has an endearing l...more
Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower is the first of what I hope is a long list of India Hayes mysteries. The story is a wonderfully entertaining cozy mystery. India‘s character is likeable and has an admirable tolerance level for her radical parents and rather eccentric neighbor. She also has an endearing l...more
First, on the cover of this book Kirkus Reviews compares this new series to Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series. This book in no way, shape, or form resembles a Meg Langslow book. The main characters' family was neither quirky nor eccentric, merely dysfunctional. I didn't find them charming at all. Her brother merely came across as sad and pathetic. The rest of the characters in the book were also not all that likeable - it felt as though the author just went that little bit too far with each of...more
I was drawn to India, an artist/librarian and her quirky family. Look forward to future installments of this fun quick who-done-it. Will add Amanda Flower to my fun mystery list: Lisa Lutz and the Spellman Files; Joan Hess Arly Hanks and Claire Malloy series; Sally Goldenbaum Seaside Knitters; Cleo Coyle Coffehouse mysteries and Marshall Karp Lomax and Biggs series.
I actually really enjoyed this book. I accidentally started the series with the second book, but it didn't really affect my enjoyment of this book. No, the reason the rating isn't 4 or 5 stars is due to the dithering. One wouldn't expect that much dithering would be possible in a book that's a little under 300 pages long, but it was there. IT was kind of bizarre dithering as well. Instead of reminiscing about memories or her brother that was in jail or her childhood friend who had been murdered,...more
India Hayes is reluctant to agree to be a bridesmaid for her childhood BFF Olivia, since Olivia broke the heart of India's brother Mark, a wimpy mathematician at their hometown college. But she does agree, much to her regret when Mark learns of the wedding and blames her for not telling him. She regrets it even more when Olivia suddenly dies and her (now married) older sister's high school boyfriend, a local policeman, thinks that Mark is the culprit. India's family of eccentrics, her landlady,...more
This author visited my library after the publication of the second book in this series, Murder in a Basket. I read both books rather quickly. Mystery is not a genre that usually calls to me, but I loved these books. I really identified with the main character, probably because like me she is a librarian and from Northeast Ohio. Aside from the mystery in this series the author's humor and ability to craft awkward situations was very appealing. A highly recommended read for cozy mystery lovers, or...more
A promising debut novel which could appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich. India Hayes is a librarian and artist at a college when she has been asked -- yet again-- to be a bridesmaid for a childhood friend. The problem is India's brother still carries a torch for Olivia. When Olivia turns up dead, the brother becomes the main suspect, and India must don another hat as an amateur sleuth to prove Mark's innocence. This first novel sets the scene of India's hometown, which includes her activist parent...more
This was a good book by a new author. Amanda is coming to do a book talk and signing at our library at the end of July so I thought I would read her books.
I was pleasently surprised by her first novel. This was a cute little mystery that takes place near my hometown of Cleveland, OH. I found that her characters had a lot of character and I enjoyed the wackiness of the main character, India Hayes, family.
When India agrees to be a bridesmaid in her childhood friend's, Olivia, wedding, the reader...more
I was pleasently surprised by her first novel. This was a cute little mystery that takes place near my hometown of Cleveland, OH. I found that her characters had a lot of character and I enjoyed the wackiness of the main character, India Hayes, family.
When India agrees to be a bridesmaid in her childhood friend's, Olivia, wedding, the reader...more
Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower
In a Northeastern Ohio town that “connected itself with civilized New England and distanced itself from its Midwestern-ness,” a wedding and murder threatens to tear a liberal activist family down to its very foundation. India Hayes’ childhood friend returns home to get married and instead meets a terrible end at Martin University’s campus. And, all fingers point to India’s brother, Mark.
India is the middle child of Presbyterian Reverend Lana Hayes and the wheelchai...more
In a Northeastern Ohio town that “connected itself with civilized New England and distanced itself from its Midwestern-ness,” a wedding and murder threatens to tear a liberal activist family down to its very foundation. India Hayes’ childhood friend returns home to get married and instead meets a terrible end at Martin University’s campus. And, all fingers point to India’s brother, Mark.
India is the middle child of Presbyterian Reverend Lana Hayes and the wheelchai...more
A fun debut cozy mystery. It has a lot of the elements you really look for in a cozy. Humor. A quirky family. An amateur sleuth forced into sleuthing by circumstances. A homicide detective who considers her as interfering but is also attracted. The victim actually deserved it.
I really enjoyed this one. All of the elements worked and it was a lot of fun. Unlike so many cozies these days, there was no subtext of teaching some strange arcane knowledge like cooking, brewing coffee, organizing, etc....more
I really enjoyed this one. All of the elements worked and it was a lot of fun. Unlike so many cozies these days, there was no subtext of teaching some strange arcane knowledge like cooking, brewing coffee, organizing, etc....more
Enjoyed this light contemporary "cozy" mystery, the first in a series. It's set in a small college town in Ohio and the main character,who of necessity has to become a sleuth,is a reference librarian at the small liberal arts college there. A fun fact is that the author is also a reference librarian at a small college, etc.! A blurb on the cover compares this to Donna Andrew's Meg Langslow screwball mysteries and this would be a good fit. The eccentric family all living in the same area, etc.
Loved this book,particularly the characters (India's brother, Mark, a math nerd who is under suspicion for the murder of his EX girlfriend, and the two awesome cats were my favorites). I was surprised to find that this was Amanda Flower's first book, because it was just so good. Recently, I've been reading a lot of mysteries, and I enjoyed this one the most! I loved her style and am really looking forward to the next in the India Hayes series, which is called, Murder in a Basket (I think).
I liked this mystery, partly because I am partial to any character who's an academic librarian (what's not to like)? Bonus in that her mom is a Presbyterian pastor. And then there's her ferocious overly-Irish neighbor. And small-town politics.
The mystery itself wasn't much of one, and all of India's running around distractedly made me skim towards the end, but I'll still pick up the next entry in the series, for the characters alone.
The mystery itself wasn't much of one, and all of India's running around distractedly made me skim towards the end, but I'll still pick up the next entry in the series, for the characters alone.
This is the beginning of a new mystery series set amid the quirky personalities found in academia, a la Maggie Barbieri's "Murder 101" series, but I found the setting - a small, private liberal arts college campus in suburban Northeastern Ohio - irresistible, along with main character India Hayes' position as a librarian at said college (obviously, I'm an Ohioan who works at a library). It's good, entertaining fun, with a host of off-the-wall characters & a murder mystery that grabs the read...more
Fun, easy to read, fast paced mystery novel starring an Ohio Western Reserve private college librarian cum super sleuth India Hayes who just "ends up being in the wrong place at the right time."...um all the time, lol! The cast of colorful backup characters from this smallish but surprisingly cosmopolitan town who make up India's family, friends, & co-workers don't hurt the story one bit either! Liked so much I read it in one day.
India Hayes is a librarian at Martin College in Ohio. It's a small campus, but prone to lots of action. Her brother Mark is accused of a crime against an old high school flame. India steps in and investigates to help her brother. Being a small town, everyone seems to know each other or has dated each other in the past. Her age-defying hippie parents are fun, as is her leprechaun loving neighbor Ina. A nice start to a mystery series.
This is a fun, short read. India Hayes is a artist/librarian. Her brother is accused of murdering his high-school love, who also happens to be India's good friend. India is caught between trying to prove her brother innocent, keeping her parents from going off the deep end and keeping her job from a ineffective university president. There is an attractive detective, a crazy landlady and two cats who can't stand each other thrown in for good measure. Flowers creates a fun and enjoyable read and h...more
I am very tired of reading about women who arbitrarily decide to investigate murders on their own because they believe the police are incompetent, corrupt, or just plain stupid. They always make things worse, alienate everyone around them, and then are so smug about their superior intellect that it's impossible to see why no one murders them!
I liked the quirky main character who gets pulled into a murder investigation when all signs point toward her brother as the guilty party. She runs up against the police investigation and takes chances to clear his name. Nice, fun read
What fun! A college librarian and animal lover in a small town with a kooky family. And I love the Ohio connection.India Hayes is a great charcter with a perfect setting for a cozy. Please keep them coming Amanda Flower.
At the start of the year I was asked to review Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower. I agreed to the review because a college librarian as amateur sleuth sounded interesting. Plus she has a brother who is a long time mathematics graduate student, a character I can also relate too.
India Hayes, academic librarian and reluctant bridesmaid must solve the mystery of who killed her childhood friend at the wedding.
I really expected to like this book but I found the pacing too slow. A cosy mystery is one par...more
India Hayes, academic librarian and reluctant bridesmaid must solve the mystery of who killed her childhood friend at the wedding.
I really expected to like this book but I found the pacing too slow. A cosy mystery is one par...more
India Hayes finds her job as a bridesmaid is anything but pleasant when the bride ends up as a homicide victim and India's brother is the major suspect. A really good mystery.
This is a lovely little mystery that introduces an fabulous new amateur dectective, India Hayes. It is a quick and charming read that will keep you happy for the whole afternoon.
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Amanda Flower, an Agatha-nominated mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. Her debut mystery, Maid of Murder, was an Agatha Award Nomine...more
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May 30, 2011 02:26pm