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Midsummer Murder
Shelley Freydont Book Review

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Plot Summary of Midsummer Murder
"MIDSUMMER MURDER

Kensington, Aug 2001, 22.00, 288 pp.
ISBN 15756667474

    Lindy Graham-Haggerty was a successful dancer before she retired to raise two children. Now she faces empty nest syndrome while her husband travels more than he is home. Lindy goes back to work as the rehearsal director for the Jeremy Ash Dance Company. She is now on the road traveling with the troupe to the to Easton Arts Retreat, a writers and visual arts colony, in upstate New York.

    Jeremy got his start there and his company is opening the season on the retreats fiftieth anniversary. Just before they arrive at their destination, a student is killed falling off a cliff. The local sheriff, who hates the retreat, is looking to make the boy's death a murder or a suicide. When a second boy turns up missing, the sheriff arrests the man who stole his girlfriend many years ago, a person he hates with a passion. Lindy, with the help of her friends in the troupe, tries to find the real culprit so the show can go on.

    The cutthroat world of dance juxtaposed against the intense avarice of the perpetrators making the disparate groups seem more like mirror images of each other. Shelly Freydont is quite good at characterization that enables her to create fully developed yet diverse players. MIDSUMMER MURDER is a real puzzle because the main perpetrator is right in the reader's face, but difficult to see because the culprit still blends in with the rest of the forest of suspects.

Harriet Klausner
"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Midsummer Murder
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).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
How difficult to spot villain? - Very difficult--no foreshadowing/clues
Time/era of story: - 1980's-1999
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 40%
Murder of certain profession? - businessmen
Kind of investigator - amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes
General Crime (including known murderer) Yes
Who's the criminal enemy here? - finding a known killer

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - teacher
How much violence does he/she use? - a little
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status: - small businessman
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an average amount
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - 2
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Midsummer Murder
When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman
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File M for Murder by India Edghill
Murder in Silverplate by Don D'Ammassa


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