Book Review: Halloween Murder

Reviewed By: Dawn Dowdle

Halloween Murder     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Shelley Freydont
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Theater   Senior Sleuths
Series: Linda Haggerty # 4
9/02, 312 pages

Lindy Graham-Haggerty, rehearsal director for the Jeremy Ash Dance Company, is helping with the Mischief Night Marathon. It will be an old-fashioned Halloween fair with a bonfire, ghost stories, a haunted hay ride going through the woods and by dilapidated buildings, and a theatrical revue which she is to direct. It's all to raise money for a teen center. Everything is being held at the historic VanCleef Farm site. This is also where the teen center would be housed. The picketers across the street cause a lot of trouble for the fair.

Then Lindy finds what she believes to be a dummy under the bridge. It turns out to be a dead man. Unfortunately it gets away because Adam Crabtree, the recluse, nudges it, and the current carries it off. To add to the trouble, the pranks begin. A chilling limerick, based on the Seven Deadly Sins, is found with each prank that happens. At first the pranks seem harmless. Then it turns deadly. Derrick Justin is found hanging from a rigged platform. Pinned to his shirt is only a single word -- lechery.

Who wants to ruin Mischief Night forever and doesn't want the teen center? There are so many suspects Lindy is afraid they won't find the killer in time and it will be shut down. Then the much needed teen center will not happen either.

I really enjoy this series. Lindy and her assorted dance company friends always keep the story interesting, especially Rebo. He is terrifically constructed. Plus Lindy is never certain what is going on with her marriage and this always lends to the story line as well.

The additional characters, those working on the fair as well as those against the fair, really assist the story line.

I highly recommend this book and series.

Dawn Dowdle

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

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