MAY THE BEST MAN DIE

May the Best Man Die
by Deborah Donnelly
Paperback $5.99
Bantam Dell
September 30, 2003
320 pages
ISBN : 0-440-24129-4


Carnegie Kincaid is a wedding planner with two demanding weddings looming over the soon to be Christmas and New Year’s holidays. In the newest book in this series by Deborah Donnelly, May the Best Man Die, Carnegie is forced to investigate the deaths of two best men. Unfortunately for the couple, the first best man was murdered at the bachelor party and the replacement then was killed shortly after that. For some bizarre reason, Carnegie was looking at the stag party with binoculars and now feels responsible for investigating the death of the first best man. This tends to cause a problem with her best friend since it is the friend’s brother who appears to be the guilty party at first and involves the police relationship then with the family also.

The characters are delightful in this novel. The wedding families are all too realistic both in their negative personality attributes, as well as their humorous tacky dreams of the perfect wedding.

The mystery of May the Best Man Die completely had me flabbergasted, even though it was logical. Through the thoughts and actions of Carnegie Kincaid, Ms. Donnelly masterfully guides the reader along numerous paths of misinformation and false leads. Her writing makes me wonder if she would make a great criminal.

Deborah Donnelly grew up as a sea captain’s daughter in Panama and Cape Cod. She attended school in St. Paul and in the state of Washington. With a variety of life experiences and occupations throughout the world, she has lived in Seattle and now lives in Idaho. She has previously written two other books with the main character being Carnegie Kincaid.

I do look forward to reading future, as well as past, books in this series.