Book Review: Killer On A Hot Tin Roof

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Title:  Killer On A Hot Tin Roof

Author:  Livia J. Washburn

Pages:  234

Publication Date:  2011 

Version:  Hardcover 

Genre:  Mystery/Fiction

Summary Via Goodreads.com:  

"Delilah Dickinson is finally looking forward to a nice, relaxing time leading her literary travel agency's latest tour at the annual Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans. After all, a group of intelligent, low-key English professors can't be too much trouble, right? Wrong, as it turns out. These academics don't waste any time showing their claws, especially when one of the professors claims he can prove Williams didn't even write Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. But when the supposed real author - Howard Burleson, apparently once a very close friend of Tennessee's - turns up dead, Delilah knows she's got to get to the bottom of things...even if the truth is as dirty as all them lies! But, Lord - the cast of suspects. Tamara Paige's entire academic career will be ruined if it turns out that Williams wasn't the actual playwright, and Delilah knows people have killed for much less. And it appears that someone else in the tour group is related to Burleson - someone who surely wouldn't want the world to know that the supposed "author" based the scathing play on his own proud Southern family. So between finding a murderer and all the steamy affairs, squabbling, and shouts of 'Shut up!/No, you shut up!' Delilah is beginning to feel like a certain cat stuck on a certain roof. Plus there's still a killer on the loose, and if she doesn't act quickly she just may find herself starring...in her very own death scene."

My Review:

In Killer On A Hot Tin Roof a travel agent, Delilah Dickinson, has put together a group of professors and takes them to New Orleans to the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival to do their presentations.  All Delilah wants is for this trip to be a success and go off without any major drama or incidence.  Well, Delilah doesn’t exactly get her wish for a drama-free trip.  One of the professors, Michael, has brought something with him for his presentation on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that will blow the audience away…and ruin a fellow professor’s career at the University.  Michael has found a man that says he was the original author of the famous play and that Tennessee Williams took it from him to “improve” on, but never gave it back and then never put his name on it with Tennessee’s.  All of Michael’s presentation and career future depends on this older gentleman and proof that he wrote the play and not Tennessee.  They saying of “never put all your eggs in one basket” came to mind when I figured this part out.  You are only asking for trouble if you place your career and reputation in one elderly man’s word.  Especially when that man could also ruin another professor if he is right or telling the truth.  If you ask me that is perfect ingredients for trouble, hard feelings, doubts, worries, and possibly even murder.

I LOVED the title AND the cover of this book!  How did I feel about this book?  Eh, it was ok.  It kept my attention throughout the book and had a humdinger of an ending I will give it that.  However, this was a third book in a series, which I did not realize when I picked it up to read.  I was still able to follow the plot of this book, but there were times that I could tell the author was trying to build on some relationship or event from her previous two books that made me wonder what it was that I missed.  There was a lot of reference to the other two books events too.  Like I said, I was able to make it through this book just fine and the plot wasn’t really affected, but I could tell I may have gotten a better sense of the characters had I read the first two books (at least that is how it seemed).  The characters were fun and easy to identify with in this book and fun.

I did feel though like it took a long time to get to the peek of the plotline.  I understood why, because you had to get some background and build suspense, but I think when you get to over half the book read and the murder still hasn’t happened, it makes the reader wonder about the book (seeing this is the main reason you may have picked up the book).  Then I felt a bit deceived by the book description.  When I read it, it made me think this travel guide is an amateur sleuth, which she kind of was, but she didn’t really do a lot of investigating on her own like I picture an amateur sleuth to do.  She basically just listened to what the detectives asked her and made her own decisions and seemed to just trip onto a possible solution.  I think if I had read the other two books I may have felt differently about the book as a whole.

I would have to go with 2 out of 5 stars on this one.  

Here are the challenges that this book counts toward:  100 Books Read, 1,000,000 Pages Read, A to Z Title Challenge, and Mystery and Suspense Challenge.