Murder at the Spa

Charlotte Graham #1

by Stefanie Matteson

Oscar-winning actress and amateur sleuth Charlotte Graham goes undercover at the posh health spa owned by old friend Paulina Lagenberg to find a saboteur.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary, Cozy

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Stefanie Matteson (1946 - ) now of Hackensack, N.J. She is the author of the 'Charlotte Graham' mystery series (about a divorced woman, 4Xs, whose career as a 1930s glamorous movie star opens doors to this aging sleuth.) Stephanie is also a vice president at Beckerman, where she represents clients in the clean technology, economic development and real estate sectors. Prior to joining Beckerman five years ago, she worked as a journalist.

Reviews

[Gary Sundell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The start of an 8 book series. Aging actress Charlotte Graham is summoned by a friend to look into a matter involving her cosmetics company and her upstate New York spa. Charlotte has a talent for solving mysteries. This book was written in the pre-cell phone era. I will be continuing with the series.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

After receiving a call from a friend, aging actresses Charlotte Graham heads to the Paulina Langenberg Spa to investigate a false report of radium in the mineral water. While she is there, several guests at the spa are murdered in the mineral baths. Can Charlotte figure out who is behind all this mayhem before she becomes the next victim?

Originally published in 1990, Murder at the Spa by Stefanie Matteson is very different in content and plotting than currently published mysteries in the cozy genre. Instead of being chick lit with a mystery, Murder at the Spa has more in common with an Agatha Christie novel or an episode of Murder, She Wrote. However, it did not leave a lasting impression with me.

Charlotte is portrayed as a Jessica Fletcher type, but she lacks the spunk that Jessica has. She was fine but a little one dimensional. I never really felt like I knew her as a person. Instead, the book was filed with details about mineral water. I do not think the information about mineral water was nessacary to the plot. It was a bit mind numbing and I felt very victorious when I actually finished the book.

If you like mysteries more about the mystery and less about the characters, this book is for you. The plot is the star of this book. However, I could not get into it personally and will not be continuing with the series.

I received this book from Open Road Integrated Media via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and a half stars. I saw this on a list of books a blogger claimed would be similar to Kerry Greenwood's Phyrne Fisher novels. It is nothing like those, of course. It felt like it was meant to be one of those 400 page "sweeping sagas" about a cosmetic empire that somehow got dropped on the floor at the publisher's and the pages mixed in with a Miss Marple mystery. I guess it's an okay summer timepass, but I found it difficult to engage with the characters and situation. There is way, way too much description of the estate, its surroundings and more than anyone ever wanted to know about minerals. It takes fully half of the novel for the main character to even think about doing any sleuthing, although that is supposedly what she is there for; the first half is setup, during which she just kind of sits around and stuff happens, in spite of the obligatory references to a previous case she supposedly participated in solving (and which of course does not exist). The main character is an aging moviestar making a comeback, but the reader is left wondering just when she was young and famous, and what period the action takes place in. If she was young and beautiful in the thirties, the book would be set in the sixties, but the fitness and diet regimes are terribly, terribly late eighties. Confusing. By the last couple of chapters, I found myself skimming to finish.

Also, at first I thought it was a re-read of another dim cozy mystery written in the 1980s, also about a gym, but this time not a luxury outfit. The title is unfortunately lost in the mists of time, at least for me. In that book, too, there's a lot of talk about karma, and the gym owner's wife speaks the same line: "The body is a temple, but too many people treat it like a cheap hotel room." The exercise classes, particularly Swing and Sway, sounded like they were lifted straight from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Altogether a disappointment. I won't be looking for the rest of the series.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder Haunts a Luxury Spa

Paulina Langenberg, owner of the Langenberg cosmetics company, is worried that someone is trying to sabotage her luxury spa by planting stories that the mineral water used in the spa is radioactive. She invites her good friend Charlotte Graham, a famous actress, to spend a week at the spa and try to figure out who is responsible for planting the story. Charlotte agrees to go. After all how can she go wrong with a fully paid week at Paulina's spa. However, when guests begin turning up dead in the mineral baths, she gets more than she bargained for.

This is an amusing mystery if you enjoy luxurious settings. I found the early chapters of the book very slow. The description of spa life was interesting up to a point, but then it became repetitive. After the middle of the book the pace picked up. The murders were rather clever and the book ends with a twist.

Charlotte is a good character. I enjoyed her observations on life and her fellow spa goers. Paulina is a rather overblown tyrant. However, she has a soft side, and it was amusing to watch her maneuver people to get her own way.

If you enjoy mysteries with little violence and a moderate amount of sleuthing, you may enjoy this book. However, the slow pace and excessive description keep me from recommending it highly.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not get interested in this book or its characters. Charlotte, an aging movie/stage star, is the main character but we don't get to know her beyond what we might have learned from Entertainment Tonight if she were a real person. Instead we got excessively detailed descriptions of the spa, its history, the architecture, etc. I also didn't really understand what brought her to the scene of the crime to begin with. Supposedly she gets a call from her good friend Pauline, but their interactions seem to be more like acquaintances. I think Ms. Matteson got bogged down in writing about the wrong parts of the story. I just struggled.

A preview copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Open Road Media in exchange for an honest review.

[Rachel N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlotte Graham is a famous actress in her sixties. He friend Paulina calls her to her spa on an urgent matter. Along with the spa Paulina has a well known beauty product line. Though the matter is supposedly urgent Charlotte is at the spa three days before she sees Paulina, instead she settles into her spa routine, described in boring detail. Soon two other spa guests are murdered in the spas mineral bath tubs and Charlotte sort of investigates the crimes. There is a lot more detail about spas and mineral waters than there is about the victims or the investigation. If you want to read about spas in the 1990's this is the book for you otherwise you aren't missing anything.

[Rachel Vryhof · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main character Charlotte Graham is the queen of raised eyebrows, but I gave her a run for her money reading this book! It's definitely showing its age in an era of inclusiveness and body positivity. I couldn't believe how many times I read the words fatties, fat camp, cripple, mental defective. Word of caution to those with sensitivities in this area.

All that aside, I did enjoy the mystery and was guessing until the end. The setting of a posh health spa modeled after Saratoga Springs NY was thoroughly enjoyable and the motive of the murderer was unique. Looking forward to more in this series!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Film star Charlotte Graham checks into a health spa run by her friend, cosmetic queen Paulina Langenberg. Charlotte is following her schedule just fine when another guest ends up dead in the mineral baths. With a cast of eccentric characters, an exotic setting, an intrepid sleuth and a bevy of suspects, this classic mystery will make you want to check in to your nearest health resort to shed some pounds, eat a proper diet and regain a healthy glow. But in this story, beware of unrest among the staff and owner’s relatives. All isn’t as it seems beneath the frothy waters of the mineral springs.

[EmmyT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly great fun, easy romp. Think there is potential for future books being better than this first one. Some common health fitness ideas are treated as novel, and maybe they were in 1990 when book was written. Older actress, wealth, and glamor make me want to visit with Charlotte again.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

My "waiting for appointments" book and just a fun read. A bit long on some boring details about the spa, but mostly an enjoyable read with quirky characters.

[Simon Crum · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I'm on holiday in Cancun and needed something to read (and leave on my deck chair to hold my place). But fear not, Stefanie, I would have been sad if someone had taken it before I knew whodunnit! Apparently this is the first book in a series with the same actress/detective. Must have been well received. The writing was good, made for a quick read, included some interesting characters as well as historical facts. Perfect for a vacation read really. If I find the second one, I'll probably pick that up too.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlotte Graham, a sixtyish silver screen legend, has a reputation as a sleuth. Charlotte visits a friend’s health spa for a health cleanse and ends up involved in figuring out who murdered two of the spa’s other guests and why. This is a fairly well done story. However, initially, there are a lot of characters introduced, which makes it a bit difficult to remember just who everyone is and how or if they are related to the story. I found the many, many wordy descriptions of the spa and its offerings a bit too much. In fact, I think the book would have been more enjoyable with less focus on what the spa was known for and supposed to do—or even if the setting were something else besides an old fashioned spa for the uber rich. Frankly, I am not really interested in knowing what you can get for huge amounts of money at these spas, and found it less than interesting to wade through the many, many descriptions of the offerings, the staff and the clientele. I personally think the author should have focused more on the main character and her sleuthing abilities, especially as they related to this story.
The pot was an interesting though not very creative one, and involved esoteric science that the average person might never be familiar with, or at least that is what I thought as I read the book. However, the basic plot really did not concern most of this science, but it merely provided a backdrop for the setting. Character development was okay, but not as good as I think it could have been. There were lot of red herrings thrown into the mix, which only added to my difficulty keeping things straight. The main character Charlotte is a fairly good one, but I did not think the author spent enough time developing her as a bona fide sleuth, though that may come with time in later books. I have not read anything else by the author, so have nothing of hers to which I can compare this story. I do think that the reader who enjoys a cozy mystery will enjoy this one, especially if he or she has an interest in the way the rich spend their time and money to look younger. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlotte Graham is an aging (at 60ish? I think they said her age but I lost track) movie star in the early 1990s (when this book was originally published. And it shows in the attitudes of some of the characters toward others in the book. Can you imagine the word "cripple" being used to describe someone today?)
Anyway, it seems Charlotte has gotten some press for helping to solve a mystery and so it's to Charlotte that her friend Paulina Laugenberg turns when something's rotten in Denmark. Or at least in the beauty empire that Paulina has built.
There are a LOT of characters in this book. From the great Paulina and her personal staff to the spa staff to the other guests at the spa. If you can sit down and read this book in a shorter span of time, I'd highly recommend it. Otherwise you can get mired in trying to remember who exactly is who.

[Diane Saul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlotte Graham is an award winning actress from the early days of movies. She has gone to a friends spa because someone is trying to sabotage the friends multi million dollar business. Shortly after arriving people start dying. Charlotte imagines herself an amateur sleuth so she goes into action to try to find out what has happened.
There are some very interesting characters in this book who provide some humor, some interesting family dynamics and a mystery. This book will hold the readers attention from the first page to the last.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't give up on many books, but after reading 30% of this one I put it down. Nothing about it could command my interest or enthusiasm. Not the characters, not the boring spa descriptions, nothing.

Net galley provided me with a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review---wish it could have been more positive.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

What could have been a sparkling mystery gets bogged down in stolid plotting and style - there's far too much telling and something about this particular third-person narration puts far too much space between the reader and the characters. Perhaps the series improves?

I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Scilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pauline asks Movie star, Charlotte, to come to her spa to help her. Charlotte takes up the program, then two spa patrons are found dead in the mineral water baths. Charlotte is already looking into who spread false info about radiation in the mineral water, and looks into murder of the patrons.

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book #83 read in 2007

This was a very good book. I liked the characters very much and the plot was interesting. I would like to continue reading this series.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed this story with an aging actress solving murders at a spa. At times there were too many characters and it was hard to remember who was who.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasant read; nice old fashion mystery.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actress goes to spa, solves murder.
Good.
Mineral water.
New York State.

[Lee Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Did not know too the end who did it