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| Plot Summary of Larceny and Old Lace |
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"As the owner of the Den of Antiquity, recently divorced Abigail Timberlake is used to dealing with rival dealers, cheap customers and weird people in general so she doesn't take her fellow dealers' threats on her aunt's life seriously - until her aunt shows up dead, strangled by a beautiful antique bell pull.
Still, Abigail is convinced that it simply could not have been one of her fellow antique dealers and is content to let the police handle the investigation. Then she meets Investigator Greg Washburn and immediately offers any assistance possible. But when the handsome detective arrests one of her neighboring antique dealers, she starts doing some investigating of her own while dealing with a mysterious client she nicknames the "wooly worm", threats to her beloved son Charlie, her college age daughter living with a 57-year old ex-con, her ex-husband's second marriage, her Aunt Marilyn's obsession with pink flamingos and plaster poodles, her attraction to Greg, her mother's recently reactivated social - and sex - life, not to mention trying to get answers out of all of the eccentric antique dealers on her street, especially Southern eccentrics...
Larceny & Old Lace was an entertaining mystery. Abigail Timberlake is quite engaging and the reader will immediate connect with her. The supporting characters are a little less developed, which can be a problem because there are a lot of them. I usually don't have a hard time keeping characters straight in books, but I didn't feel like I knew enough about the characters to get a mental image in my mind so they didn't seem very real to me. The plot was a little convoluted because there were so many subplots involved, but I actually liked that because real life never just stops to let you deal with one or two problems, you always have a lot of problems going on at any given time. I also enjoyed the Southern setting and the way that the author gently poked fun of traditions in the South and Southern women. I look forward to reading more books in this entertaining series!
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Debbie, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Larceny and Old Lace |
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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 - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain?
- Challenging
Time/era of story:
- 1980's-1999
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Special suspect?
- best friend
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator
- amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards lover
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- small businessman
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
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
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- killer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- money/treasure
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 1
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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