Book Review: Skeleton Key

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Skeleton Key     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jane Haddam
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Classic   Ethnic   Humorous
Series: Gregor Demarkian # 16
St. Martin’s, Feb 2000, $23.95, 288 pp.

In the wealthiest section of affluent Litchfield County, Connecticut lives Kayla Anson, a debutante now worth billions with the recent death of her father. Visiting the posh Anson estate is Bennis Hannaford, who plans to stay only one night. When Bennis goes outside to smoke a cigarette, she notices the BMW in the garage seems to contain a person. Reluctantly, she looks inside only to find the dead body of Kayla.

Bennis asks her lover Gregor Demarkian to come up from Philadelphia to help the local police with the investigation. Already having trouble sleeping without his beloved Bennis near him, the former head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science unit quickly heads to Connecticut. Two more deaths occur, including that of Kayla’s arrogant, blue-blooded mother. Meanwhile, Gregor conducts his own investigation in an effort to determine the clues that belong to case, and those that the culprit has added to fool the police, before someone else dies.

Though SKELETON KEY starts a bit slow, once Gregor reaches the estates of the self-professed elite of Connecticut, the novel moves rapidly forward. The story line is an entertaining cozy highlighted by delightful characters. In his fifteenth appearance, Demarkian remarkably retains a vigor that allows Jane Haddam to even preach against the hazards of tobacco without slowing down a plot that will please her readers.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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