Sweet and Deadly
Sweet and Deadly book cover

Sweet and Deadly

Hardcover – January 1, 2011

Price
$40.00
Format
Hardcover
Pages
272
Publisher
Severn House
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0727869487
Dimensions
5.82 x 1.1 x 8.64 inches
Weight
1 pounds

Description

From Booklist Before the Southern Vampire series, Harris wrote more traditional mysteries. Sweet and Deadly, her first published book, has been brought back into print after nearly 30 years. Set in the small town of Lowfield, Mississippi, it is a gothic-influenced novel about a series of murders starting with the town doctor and his wife. Six months later, newspaper reporter Catherine, the daughter of the murdered couple, discovers a body at an abandoned cabin on the family land. At first, Catherine is the only one who believes that the new murder is connected to her parents’ death, but her eager fellow reporter, Tom, desperate for a big story, joins her investigation, and together they begin to uncover a plethora of small-town secrets. Taut, tense, and compelling, this stellar debut is a terrific small-town mystery. While Sookie fans may miss the vampires, they will be enchanted with tough, lonely Catherine and will find some similarities in the insular setting. --Jessica Moyer Before the Southern Vampire series, Harris wrote more traditional mysteries. Sweet and Deadly, her first published book, has been brought back into print after nearly 30 years. Set in the small town of Lowfield, Mississippi, it is a gothic-influenced novel about a series of murders starting with the town doctor and his wife. Six months later, newspaper reporter Catherine, the daughter of the murdered couple, discovers a body at an abandoned cabin on the family land. At first, Catherine is the only one who believes that the new murder is connected to her parents' death, but her eager fellow reporter, Tom, desperate for a big story, joins her investigation, and together they begin to uncover a plethora of small-town secrets. Taut, tense, and compelling, this stellar debut is a terrific small-town mystery. While Sookie fans may miss the vampires, they will be enchanted with tough, lonely Catherine and will find some similarities in the insular setting. --Booklist, 1st December 2010

Features & Highlights

  • An engrossing Southern mystery from the NY Times best-selling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series - Six months after the death of her parents in a car crash, Catherine Linton returns to her hometown of Lowfield, Mississippi, unconvinced that it was an accident and looking for answers. Her suspicions seem to be confirmed when she stumbles upon the dead and beaten body of her doctor father’s long-time nurse. Catherine is right: there are secrets being kept in Lowfield. But if she continues to investigate, the town where she grew up may be the same place where she is sent to her grave . . .

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(259)
★★★★
25%
(216)
★★★
15%
(130)
★★
7%
(60)
23%
(199)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Expensive hardcover edition, decent story

This is Harris' first published novel and it shows. The mystery and character development are weak - lacking the the experience and clever plotting found in her later mystery series. And in those series, readers become invested in the spunky heroines like Sookie and Lily Bard. It's harder to connect with Catherine in this story, especially since this is a stand alone novel. However, even here Harris' potential shows. This is a fast and easy cozy mystery. Serious mystery fans will be unimpressed, but the author's fans will probably enjoy this.

This new hardcover edition from Severn House is very nice, but also seriously overpriced at a retail of $28.95. The font is larger than standard, more like what you find in YA hardcover editions, and it has pictorial boards covered by a dust jacket with the same image. Collectors of Harris' work (like me) will want this hard to find novel, but casual readers would be better off buying the reissued mass market edition - [[ASIN:0425214621 Sweet and Deadly]].
11 people found this helpful
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Glad I Got This One at the Library

Another review said "boring, boring, boring". I have to second that. The characters were flat and I just didn't care what happened to any of these people. This was apparently an early book of this author's, written some 20 years ago or so. I just have to say I really enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse books but this one, was a big NOT. Also, like another reviewer commented, I didn't like the reference to black people as "darkies". Just a turn-off for me.
2 people found this helpful
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Not Bad For an Early Work

I guess this book wasn't bad for an early work by the author and I have to admire her courage in releasing something she did long ago, now that her later work has gotten so much attention. However, it does suffer some in comparison, which isn't surprising.

"Sweet and Deadly" is a murder-mystery-thriller story that doesn't contain any of the supernatural twists or elements that the author has come to be associated with. Its a pretty straightforward story about a small Southern town and the secrets it holds.

Catherine is the main character and the story begins as she discovers a body in the falling-down cabin on her family land. This is a nicely creepy beginning that was well-written and really sucked you in. You then find out that the body is Leona, a woman who worked with Catherine's father as his nurse for many years. Catherine is seen as a potential suspect, which doesn't improve her ability to cope as she is still shook up about the death of her own parents.

Leona is not a nice woman, as you soon discover, because she was using info to blackmail people in the town. Which means there could be many suspects, always a good way to go in a murder-mystery. Still, the story kind of rambles off from that tight beginning as Catherine does really dumb things and gets a love interest in Randall, which doesn't really add much to the plot, and then someone else gets murdered...and she is, again, seen as a possible suspect.

The ending was a bit suprising, so that's a good thing. But this story could have been tightened up a lot and I never really got into Catherine as a main character because it felt like the author couldn't make up their mind if she was someone who could take care of herself and protect herself or someone who was still very vulnerable and kept on falling to pieces.

I guess this is something that shows the promise of her later work, but didn't fulfill it at the time. Worth a read, but I'm not keeping the book like I've kept all of my Sookie Stackhouse novels.
1 people found this helpful
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Early Stand Alone

Catherine returns to her hometown of Lowfield, Mississippi after a car crash kills her parents. Six months later she is still there, working at the town newspaper and living in her old home alone.

Unsatisfied with the results of the investigation of her parents' crash, Catherine is unable to move on. When her father's nurse is beaten to death and left in a shack on Catherine's farm land, she is sure there is a connection. Her father was the town's only physician and the nurse was using information she obtained while working in his office to blackmail Lowfield citizens. Suddenly, everyone in the town Catherine grew up in is a suspect, even the sheriff.

If you are a fan of Harris's popular paranormal mystery series, don't miss this opportunity to read one of her earlier novels. This is a reprint of an early stand-alone mystery first published in 1981. Catherine is a complicated southern heroine with courage and intelligence. Sweet and Deadly is excellent, with a surprising ending.
1 people found this helpful
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Keep in mind the 1970s

This is a solid, traditional murder mystery without any of the paranormal stuff that is in Harris' contemporary books (I LOVE the Grave series with Harper Connelly).

While it was published in 1981, the novel has the feel of something set in the 1970s, in regard to issues of race, gender, law and even fashion. (The 23-year-old protagonist wore shirtwaist dresses to college classes!) So it helps to get your head straight about when this story was taking place. A very good debut novel!
1 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Good read
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A good read.

A good read of Harris early work. I personally prefer her paranormal series the best.
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Five Stars

I love Charlaine Harris.
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Five Stars

twas okay
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Awful

While I realize this book was a first effort for a now widely published author,it should have been on the free list. Ms. Harris's name was not enough to carry this one. Character development is poor, plot is ridiculous, and the reveal (motive) is just plain goofy, even for the 80s.