Daheim, Mary. Silver Scream: a Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery. William Morrow, 2002.
Reason read: I have no idea.
In a word, goofy. Everything about Silver Scream was goofy. The premise goes like this: the owner of a bed and breakfast needs to solve a murder on her property before the authorities blame her for the death and shut her business down. I thought that was a plausible and clever way to have a civilian try to solve a mystery. A bunch of movie are staying at Hillside Manor for a movie premier. When the producer is found dead, drowned in the kitchen sink, the race is on to solve the death. Accident? Suicide? Murder? The cleverness ends here and the story becomes just plain goofy. Judith, as the bed and breakfast owner, became completely unbelievable when she promised to have an elaborate costume for an actress repaired in one day. Then there was this goofy moment: the rookie police officer, responding to aforementioned death in Judith’s kitchen, makes bunny ears behind her superior officer’s head while investigating the scene. This is at a potential crime scene! Goofy! And another (still at the same crime scene): Judith’s husband’s ex-wife shows up. She’s not only allowed to enter the potential crime scene, but she hangs around for awhile. I could go on and on, listing all the silliness of Silver Scream. Even though I didn’t solve the mystery right away, I wasn’t sure I cared.
Here is another head-scratcher for me. In the toolshed, where mother is squirreled away like Rochester’s wife, one has to go from the bedroom and through the living room and kitchen in order to get to the bathroom (counter clockwise), when the bathroom is literally on the other side of the bedroom wall. In the main house there is a guest room but no bathroom unless the guest is allowed to go through the master bedroom in order to get to the nearest bathroom. I guess whoever designed these structures wanted the bathrooms as out of the way as possible.
As an aside, as a former housekeeper, if I found a slip of paper that appeared to be a prescription of some sort, I don’t care how illegible the handwriting was, I would never throw it in the trash. That is definitely not my call.
Quote I liked, “Who will you blame if something happens while these movie nutcases are staying at Hillside Manor?” (p 3). The word nutcase is one of my favorites.
Author fact: all of Daheim’s books have pun-typical titles.
Book trivia: It is not necessary to read the other Daheim mysteries in order to enjoy Silver Scream. Daheim will fill you in on details such as Judith worked as a librarian and bartender during the time of her first marriage and there were two other murders at Hillside Manor. Of course there were…
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living High in Cascadia” (p 154). Maybe it was just me, but I felt Silver Scream could have taken place anywhere.
~*LunaSea*~ 