Suture Self (Bed-and-Breakfast Series #17) »

Mary Richardson Daheim is a Seattle native with a degree in communications from the University of Washington. Realizing at an early age that getting published in books with real covers might elude her for years, she worked on daily newspapers and in public relations to help avoid her creditors. She lives in her hometown in a century­-old house not unlike Hillside Manor, except for the body count. Daheim is also the author of the Alpine mystery series and the mother of three daughters.

A bum hip has bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn limping off to Good Cheer Hospital — a questionable "haven of healing" where two recent patients didn't make the cut after routine surgery. Judith's trepidation at undergoing the knife is eased only by sharing a room with cousin Renie, who's in for rotator cuff repair. Though the cousins survive their surgeries, the ex-pro quarterback next door is permanently sacked after minor knee surgery. With the scoreboard showing Grim Reaper 3, post-op patients 0, Judith decides that she and Renie are obliged to get to the bottom of Good Cheer's carnage. But in order to sew up the case, Judith and Renie must probe into the suspects' psyches. And suddenly it looks as if the cousins' own prognoses could take them out of the game...for good.

Publishers Weekly

Not quite up to Daheim's usual standards, the 17th in the author's Bed-and-Breakfast series (A Streetcar Named Expire; Creeps Suzette; etc.) finds amateur gumshoe Judith McMonigle Flynn sleuthing from her hospital bed, where she is recovering from hip surgery. Before entering the Good Cheer Hospital with her peppery cousin, Renie Jones, who is due to have surgery at the same time, the two women become very apprehensive on hearing of the mysterious deaths of two patients. When the man in the next room becomes the third victim, Judith and Renie begin to investigate. Life as patients grows even more complicated for the duo when a blizzard brings the town to a standstill; Judith hears that her b&b is crowded with stranded tourists and an escaped boa constrictor; strange packages arrive at her house; her private detective husband, Joe, accepts a dangerous case; her son Mike makes a request that causes much soul-searching; and the Good Cheer Hospital is threatened by a takeover. In spite of all this confusion, Judith discovers the identity of the murderer--but the revelation is no surprise to the reader. Even though loyal Daheim fans will relish the witty and revealing interactions between familiar characters, the final denouement of a complex murder scenario and the multitude of subplots depicted here are as tedious and wearing as the healing process after surgery. Agent, Maureen Moran. (Feb. 13) Forecast: A series that's run as long as this one isn't going to be hurt by one flat outing, but this entry won't win Daheim many new fans; nor will the book's cover--its depiction of someone in surgeon's clothing stitching a baseball seems likely to elicit shrugs from browsers. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.