Million Dollar Baby

January 16, 2006
With its 1930s setting and unlikely pairing of a rich dilettante and an earnest young woman, Meade's debut will strike a chord with fanciers of Dorothy Sayers's Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. When Creighton Ashcroft arrives in his Rolls-Royce Phantom in the little town of Ridgebury, Conn., he creates quite a stir. Unimpressed by the car or its owner is mystery writer Marjorie McClelland, until she decides that Ashcroft might be able to help with her new novel. The history of a long-ago suicide at Ashcroft's newly purchased mansion and the accidental discovery of an old murder victim serve to bring the two together, while a handsome police detective provides competition and a foil. Meade uses the Depression-era setting to highlight the class differences between Ashcroft and McClelland, though she strains at times for the right balance of attraction and tension between them. Their repartee misfires as often as it dings, but this is a good first effort that bodes well for future installments.

March 1, 2006
If you yearn for an old-fashioned 1930s mystery, look no further than this debut title in a new series. Marjorie McClelland is a mystery writer trying to break through a severe case of writer -s block in Ridgebury, CT. Along comes Creighton Ashcroft, a wealthy young Briton who buys an estate on the outskirts of town that has been sitting empty since the previous owner committed suicide. Creighton agrees to help Marjorie in her efforts as an author, but they find a murdered man instead and go on a quest to uncover who did it and why. The handsome police detective, smitten with Marjorie, allows the two amateurs to conduct their own inquiry. It helps that Creighton -s wealth gives the duo entré e into Manhattan -s high society. Moving between a small town and New York City, this novel -s pace is fast, and the characters are witty and smart. First-time novelist Meade has written a traditional mystery in a style reminiscent of Rae Foley and Mignon Eberhart -the reader is too busy being entertained to care much about the plot -s improbabilities. For most libraries.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2006
If only Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart were still alive. They would be fabulous in the movie version of Meade's debut Marjorie McClelland mystery, a romantic caper redolent with the campy atmosphere of the madcap 1940s films that made these stars icons. Like Hepburn, budding mystery writer McClelland is a sassy combination of wisecracking wit and penetrating intelligence with an insouciant knack for making men fall in love with her. Having caught the eye of Ridgebury, Connecticut's newest resident, dapper British expat Creighton Ashcroft, McClelland soon finds herself touring the grounds of Ashcroft's new home, the venerable Kensington mansion. When the pair literally stumbles upon a corpse camouflaged beneath dense garden brambles, they insinuate themselves into the official murder investigation being conducted by Ridgebury's ruggedly handsome Detective Jameson. While McClelland flirts with Jameson and Ashcroft flirts with McClelland, Ridgebury's death toll begins to increase. Will Ashcroft or Jameson succeed in saving McClelland before she's next? Meade's kickoff mystery is a winner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)