What do you think?
Rate this book
Death On The Diagonal
Bead, Texas, is a dead end...Little white houses, the yard-of-the-week competition, new hanging files in the insurance company--that's about it for Bead. Not even the hit-and-run death of the editor of the Bead Weekly rouses this Texas backwater from its torpor. But nosy newcomer Robin Vaughan, hunting for a place to board her two cherished horses, sniffs trouble in this tumbleweed paradise. While her husband, Jeet, settles in as the new editor of the newspaper, reckless Robin asks incautious questions...Why is a famous equestrienne, a star in the exclusive world of dressage, holed up on a rundown farm? Who's the lurking local clone of Norman Bates in Psycho? Is it senility that makes old Boone DeWitt claim he's oil rich? Who killed nice Townsend Loving and why? Before she knows it, Robin is heading for a dead end of her own!
123 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1996
50 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn Banks
36 books15 followersHer first national publication was her short story "Idyll," which appeared in Voyages , a literary magazine, in 1968, alongside the work of Anaïs Nin, Josephine Miles and Theodore Weiss. In 1972, the oft-reprinted "Growing Up Polish in Pittsburgh" appeared in American Mix (Lippincott). A version of this story appeared as "The Virgin of Polish Hill" in Plume's 1992 Catholic Girls. Her stories appeared in several issues of Yellow Silk.
Carolyn Banks is the author of a series of humorous equestrian mysteries: Death by Dressage, Groomed for Death, Murder Well Bred, Death on the Diagonal, and A Horse to Die For, all of which available from Amber Quill Press. In addition, Carolyn has written Mr. Right (a smart-ass parafeminist psycho-erotic thriller), The Darkroom, and Girls on the Row. She is also a journalist and videographer who recently wrote and directed "Invicta," a feature movie that is part horror story, part romantic comedy that is currently in post-production.
Carolyn Banks is the author of a series of humorous equestrian mysteries: Death by Dressage, Groomed for Death, Murder Well Bred, Death on the Diagonal, and A Horse to Die For, all of which available from Amber Quill Press. In addition, Carolyn has written Mr. Right (a smart-ass parafeminist psycho-erotic thriller), The Darkroom, and Girls on the Row. She is also a journalist and videographer who recently wrote and directed "Invicta," a feature movie that is part horror story, part romantic comedy that is currently in post-production.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 20, 2022
Robin Vaughan and her husband Jeet are back in Texas for this book. But not at their own home, the small acreage called Primrose Farm. Jeet has been asked to take over as editor of a small town paper that a college friend used to run. I say used to because he died in a hit and run accident while he was out jogging. And his widow Della begged Jeet to take over until she could hire a permanent replacement. Two or three months at the most. Anyone could handle that, right?
So after the funeral Jeet stays in Bead while Robin goes back home to collect the horses. You don't expect her to go off for three whole months without her horses, do you? Of course not! The first thing she has to do when she gets back to Bead is find a place to board her two beasties. She stops in at the feed store, and the clerk suggests a place, but says that the owner is mean. Very mean. And his name is Booger. Well, who wouldn't be mean with such a name!
But there is another woman in the store, a woman who looks like a 'real' horsewoman, which for Robin means someone who rides dressage. Someone she could ride with, maybe? Or at least talk with in this tiny little town? But the woman disappears before Robin can make contact and of course that triggers all sorts of wild imaginings.
But Robin manages to get her horses settled and then finds the newspaper office, and the rest of the story takes place during the remaining part of this one day in Bead. And believe me, Robin manages to pack a ton of loony adventures into the afternoon and evening! Including solving the mystery of who that horsewoman was, who killed Jeet's college friend, what is the secret of the downtown drug store, who lives in that big creepy house by the cemetery, and even what Booger's real name is.
This was obviously a very fast-moving story, more than a little improbable in many places, but fun to read anyway. Just one more to go in the series, A Horse To Die For. I've already started on it, and it looks like horses might be more involved in that book. Seems like ever since book one (Death By Dressage) the actual horse involvement has been sidelined a little bit. I'll sum up the series as well as that next book when I am finished with it.
So after the funeral Jeet stays in Bead while Robin goes back home to collect the horses. You don't expect her to go off for three whole months without her horses, do you? Of course not! The first thing she has to do when she gets back to Bead is find a place to board her two beasties. She stops in at the feed store, and the clerk suggests a place, but says that the owner is mean. Very mean. And his name is Booger. Well, who wouldn't be mean with such a name!
But there is another woman in the store, a woman who looks like a 'real' horsewoman, which for Robin means someone who rides dressage. Someone she could ride with, maybe? Or at least talk with in this tiny little town? But the woman disappears before Robin can make contact and of course that triggers all sorts of wild imaginings.
But Robin manages to get her horses settled and then finds the newspaper office, and the rest of the story takes place during the remaining part of this one day in Bead. And believe me, Robin manages to pack a ton of loony adventures into the afternoon and evening! Including solving the mystery of who that horsewoman was, who killed Jeet's college friend, what is the secret of the downtown drug store, who lives in that big creepy house by the cemetery, and even what Booger's real name is.
This was obviously a very fast-moving story, more than a little improbable in many places, but fun to read anyway. Just one more to go in the series, A Horse To Die For. I've already started on it, and it looks like horses might be more involved in that book. Seems like ever since book one (Death By Dressage) the actual horse involvement has been sidelined a little bit. I'll sum up the series as well as that next book when I am finished with it.
August 8, 2025
Fun, but a bit too silly. 2.5 stars
August 13, 2020
I like horses, needed a quick poolside read, and figured this wouldn't suck. I was wrong. The mystery wasn't a mystery, the protagonist was a drooling idiot, and her horses got dumped in a paddock and forgotten about. To say anything else would theoretically spoil the paper thin plot, but I walked away from this disliking dressage queens even more than usual. I did think the dressage arena letters gag was moderately clever, but the rest of the horsey bits felt like they didn't quite belong in the story. Do not recommend.
April 9, 2020
Another re-read from my shelves. I actually enjoyed this one.
May 20, 2013
I wanted to love this, really I did. I mean, it's a mystery, with horses. Not just horses, but dressage. How cool is that? In the end, that's pretty much all the book had going for it. Well, that, and it was short. Sure, there is a bit of humor, and bits of good prose. But in the end, it's a mystery that isn't, and the only thing I feel for the protagonist is annoyance.
There is a murder, and in the end, the murder is solved. Not by the wit or even luck of the protagonist. Rather, it just sort of happens, while the clueless protagonist bumbles through, things happening to her, not because of her. Did I mention clueless? I spent most of my time reading wanting to reach through the pages and smack her.
Still, I did enjoy the horses, even if they weren't really a focus of the story, though they were the focus of the protagonist. And even though I'm still left baffled why such a horse focused person would travel across Texas in the summer with two horses to another town for an undetermined stay without making arrangements for their boarding first. The horses alone caused me to bump this up another star.
I'll give this author and this series a second chance, should I happen upon another of her books used. I've read this isn't the best of her books, and I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised by another. Plus, you know, horses.
There is a murder, and in the end, the murder is solved. Not by the wit or even luck of the protagonist. Rather, it just sort of happens, while the clueless protagonist bumbles through, things happening to her, not because of her. Did I mention clueless? I spent most of my time reading wanting to reach through the pages and smack her.
Still, I did enjoy the horses, even if they weren't really a focus of the story, though they were the focus of the protagonist. And even though I'm still left baffled why such a horse focused person would travel across Texas in the summer with two horses to another town for an undetermined stay without making arrangements for their boarding first. The horses alone caused me to bump this up another star.
I'll give this author and this series a second chance, should I happen upon another of her books used. I've read this isn't the best of her books, and I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised by another. Plus, you know, horses.
January 12, 2010
I am so loving this series!! Robin Vaughan is like the Bridget Jones of the horse world! She means well, but she's always getting herself into some kind of trouble, often stumbling upon it completely unaware. This is the third one I've read, and so far it's my been my favorite. I do wish there were more than 5 books in this series, because it's so fun reading about Robin's various adventures in the world of horses.
May 5, 2010
What a fun and fast read!! Loved the humor and enjoyed the story.
October 23, 2011
Like horses and mysteries? A cozy vacation or weekend read!
January 11, 2015
Abundant horse (dressage) details and solid sense of place (backwater Texas). The mystery itself is pretty light weight. Robin is a bit too ditzy for my suspense heroines but solid horse knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews