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| Plot Summary of Top o' the Mournin' |
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"
Pocket, August 2003, 5.99, 320 pp.
ISBN 0743458125
After learning her husband is gay, actress Emily Andrews leaves New York to return home to Iowa where she takes a job as an escort for a bank sponsored senior citizen tours. Last year she went to Switzerland where she was involved in a triple homicide (See ALPINE FOR YOU), caught a killer, and met the love of her life Swiss Detective Etienne Micelli.
This year Emily escorts seniors to Ireland where they stay at Ballybantry Castle, renovated into a hotel but rumored to be haunted. The trip begins wonderfully when Etienne shows up unexpectedly for a rendezvous but the fires burn out when two of the hotel's staff are found dead with wet webbed footsteps found near one of the bodies. Haunting cries in the night, cold spots in unexpected places, and electricity going out for no logical reason turns Emily's job into a nightmare. Meeting her former husband who had a sex change operation and is on a honeymoon complicates matters. When Emily discovers there have been over forty deaths at the castle in two years, she decides to find out who the killer is.
TOP O' THE MOURNIN' is a delightful cozy that is low on gore but rich in plot and characterizations. There is plenty of slapstick humor especially when the heroine and her significant other are repeatedly interrupted during an interlude. The mystery is well constructed and the support cast yields a number of suspects, one of whom has an excellent motive for wanting to destroy the castle's reputation by making it seem better to vacate than spend a deadly vacation there.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Top o' the Mournin' |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain?
- Very difficult--no foreshadowing/clues
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Kind of investigator
- amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- life in that culture
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- small businessman
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- a little
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- mastermind
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Ireland
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths?
- 2
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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