Sat 22 Mar 2014
Reviewed by Walter Albert: MARIANNE MACDONALD – Die Once.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[2] Comments
MARIANNE MACDONALD – Die Once. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, May 2003. No US paperback edition. Published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, hardcover, 2002.
Antiquarian book dealer Dido Hoare loses a recent but good customer in an apparent suicide. Of course, things are never what they seem, so when the suicide is investigated, Dido finds herself involved as she inventories his collection for the firm of lawyers that’s handling the estate and gets increasingly drawn into the maze the case turns into.
The book dealing is nicely integrated, as usual. The plot is somewhat too intricate (and perhaps too drawn out) to be completely involving, but this is certainly a recommended bibliomystery.
The Dido Hoare series —
1. Death’s Autograph (1996)
2. Ghost Walk (1997)
3. Smoke Screen (1999)
4. Road Kill (2000)
5. Blood Lies (2001)
6. Die Once (2002)
7. Three Monkeys (2005)
8. Faking It (2006)
March 22nd, 2014 at 6:06 am
I wonder what it must have been like for a young woman to grow up among school kids with a name like Dido Hoare ?
March 22nd, 2014 at 3:37 pm
I hate to say it, but the thought occurred to me too. Turns out, though, that Hoare is well known if not common surname in the UK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoare
This is a series I didn’t know anything about until I posted Walter’s review, and it sounds like a good one. The book aspect is right up my alley, and, I imagine, for most readers of this blog.