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A House to Die For

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

Red-hot real estate agent Darby Farr has spent years trying to forget her hometown of Hurricane Harbor, Maine—especially the painful memories of being raised by her controlling aunt following her parents' tragic deaths. Then one morning, she learns her aunt is dying, and the calculating woman has one final demand: clinch the multimillion-dollar sale of Fairview, a breathtaking waterfront estate.

The deal seems simple, but trouble is brewing on the rocky coast. Within hours of Darby's arrival, an obscure deed restriction scuttles the sale just as the backup buyer is found bludgeoned to death on the property's grounds. Assisted by handsome journalist Miles Porter, Darby uncovers dark secrets that reveal an ugly scandal . . . and even uglier motives for murder. As a brutal storm surges up the coast, Darby must salvage the deal, find the killer—and somehow stay alive.

Praise:

"An appealing debut . . . the author does a good job portraying Darby in her efforts to make peace with her childhood past and solve a murder on a picturesque Maine island."—Publishers Weekly

"A superb prologue, wonderful story, atmospheric with a good plot."—Crimespree Magazine

"Light and entertaining, A House to Die For is a fun mystery and fantastic way to spend an evening!" —Suspense Magazine

"[Doudera] expertly weaves a tale of suspense on a Maine island, where murder and real estate are an explosive combination."-Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of The Mephisto Club

"Here's a fast-paced and well-told story with a smart, savvy real estate agent as the heroine, solving crimes while making sales. Bring on the next one!"-Barbara Corcoran, real estate contributor for NBC's Today Show and author of Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life 

 

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 1, 2010
      Doudera's appealing cozy debut introduces Darby Farr, a half-Asian San Diego realtor. On hearing her realtor aunt, Jane, is dying, Darby heads home to Hurricane Harbor, Maine, to help her aunt's assistant with Jane's last sale—the Fairview estate owned by old brother and sister friends of Darby's, Mark and Lucy Trimble. Bostonian Peyton Mayerson, the head of Pemberton Point Weddings, has made an impressive offer, but backup buyer Emerson Phipps, a prominent Boston surgeon, is sure he'll be Fairview's new owner. Before the multimillion-dollar sale can go through, someone bludgeons Phipps to death in the property's garden shed. Lucy, who's found hurt near the crime scene, becomes a suspect. While real estate matters slow the narrative in places, the author does a good job portraying Darby in her efforts to make peace with her childhood past and solve a murder on a picturesque Maine island.

    • Kirkus

      January 1, 2010
      A realtor reluctantly returns to her old home only to become embroiled in a deadly game of deceit.

      When her tough aunt Jane, the Florida realtor who'd come north to raise her after the death of her parents, sold the family home on Hurricane Island, Darby Farr fled for California. Now Tina, her aunt's assistant, begs her to return to finalize a multimillion-dollar deal for the sale of a stately oceanfront estate Jane had set up before slipping into a coma. Upon her arrival, she's confronted by Soames Pemberton, a drugged-up ex-SEAL who warns her to leave the island. The real-estate deal becomes a lot more complicated when Dr. Emerson Phipps is found murdered on the grounds of Fairview, the estate he'd coveted even before it was inherited by Mark and Lucy Trimble. Phipps was an old college friend of Mark, who'd wanted Phipps to buy the place because he didn't know that his old buddy had raped the teenaged Lucy, now a recovering drug addict and talented painter. Further complications follow apace. Peyton Mayerson, who's supposed to be buying Fairview, arrives on Hurricane Island with her handsome Italian boyfriend and some secrets of her own. Pemberton turns up at the town board meeting with a deed restriction that may scuttle the sale. More people die. Darby had better figure out what is going on before she's added to the list.

      Doudera's debut is a welcome addition to the genre, chock full of danger and romance.

      (COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2010
      Darby Farr returns home to Hurricane Harbor, ME, to handle a real estate deal for her terminally ill aunt. With a greedy woman and an unscrupulous doctor vying to buy the property, the closing comes down to murder. VERDICT This gentle cozy with some unexpected plot twists is sure to please fans of Sarah Graves. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 12/09.]

      Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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