A delightful pistache with Chappell's usual witty touc

Chappell, best known for her Sam and Hollis mysteries, is also the author of two collections of short stories about a village out on the marsh called Oysterback, a place where anything can happen and frequently does. These stories are a delight, full of magical realism and the extraordinary realism of day to day living.

Helen Chappell's great genius is in her characters and her sense of magical realism.

Although this book is hard to find since it is out of print I think that this book is a well written beginners guide to the pagan religions. It covers nine different topics including Satanism and Voodoo, but none of the spells in it will hurt or kill a person. The worst spell in the entire book is a spell that gives someone a string of bad luck, nothing worse. This book is perfect for the begginer Wiccan or the interested bystander. Helen Chappell weaves the perfect gentle guide to begginers magick that I have ever read.

Junk picker Carrie returns to her hometown, Oysterback, Maryland on the Eastern Shore to attend her mother's funeral. Carrie and her sister Earlene have been at odds for years over lifestyles and even while trying to honor the dead they argue. Both await their brother Delmar to return with the ashes from Florida, but he is being detained by police for an incident at the airport where metal detectors were set off by their mom's urn.

Carrie is shocked to find Professor Jack Shepherd sleeping in her mother's bed. He explains that he normally lives on a boat, but her mother said he could use her house while she was away if he needed to for some reason. Her former boyfriend, the married Hudson Swann, also accosts Carrie. She clearly explains to Hudson that they are the past though she admits to herself that she wouldn't mind a future with Jack.

Though there is a dark comical backdrop, WHOLE LOT OF TROUBLE is a deep relationship drama that showcases family rivalries and lingering disagreements and disappointments. The sisters are a delight to observe fuss and fight while their respective descriptions of their brother paint quite a picture of him. Though some tension caused by "outsiders" seems unnecessary, fans will appreciate this no person is an island tale that emphasizes everybody needs somebody sometimes.

Harriet Klausner

Fans of Helen Chappell, rejoice! Oysterback, the delightful town on Maryland's Eastern Shore that was the setting for two earlier collections, has returned, as deliciously quirky as ever.

For protagonist Carrie Hudson, Oysterback is less than delightful -- it's her hometown and she left it behind her a long time ago. Now her mother's death has brought her home, home to deal with everything she thought she'd left behind her a long time ago.

By turns humorous and touching, A WHOLE WORLD OF TROUBLE is Chappell at her best.

Try as she might, Helen just can't get some things right. She chose a too common place a title for the book and she has Sam barking up the wrong tree with the company he keeps in the world of ghosts. The book is a good read but these and some other things we can simply do without.

Hollis is playing hooky from her job at a local newspaper, something she almost never does, when her ex husband (and ghost)Sam Westcott, shows up and tells her of the discovery of a submerged car off of the Calais Bridge. It happens to be on her way, so she goes to investigate. The car is an old Coupe de Ville and there is a skeleton inside. Most put it down to an accident. The body turns out to be one Renata Clinton, who divorced the most hated man on Beddoes Island over thirty years before. Her daughter, a famous soap star wants Hollis to investigate, and she reluctantly gets herself involved as another murder is committed and her own father is suspect.

The characters in this series are priceless. Sam the self appointed guardian ghost, his sponsor, Edgar Allan Poe, and who else would name a grumpy homocide detective Ormond Friendly? The story is as good as the characters, this series is alot of fun.

A REALLY GREAT BOOK. I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN, AND WHEN I DID I HAD TO GET BACK TO IT IMMEDIATELY. THE CHARACTERS WERE FLAWLESS, AND WORKED GREAT TOGETHER. A MUST READ FOR ANY TYPE OF READER.

Hollis is dragooned into judging an Elvis impersonator contest by her no good godfather Albie Lydekker. Her ghostly ex-husband and most of the people she knows think it is a bad idea, so does she. But, Albie is in debt to Bang Bang Devine, mafioso and Elvis impersonator and he wants a contest. Then, Bang is discovered dead in Elvis drag at the seedy Lock and Load motel, and Albie is a suspect. Things get really involved between all of the different Elvii, the real E, Sam the ghost, Snow White the grunge rocker hooker, and all of the usual Eastern Shore characters. It is all alot of fun however. I really didn't even try to figure out who the murderer was, I wasn't surprised, but the characters were so much fun, I didn't really care.

I found this the best yet in Chappell's mystery series, which continues the madcap tradition of Cary Grant in Topper. In this book, we learn more about Hollis' feelings for Sam, and his for her, but this wistful aside does not detract from the hilarity of the Elvis impersonators and life on the Eastern Shore. You really can't afford to skip over one bit of narrative in Chappell's work, because you're sure to miss a laugh if you do.

Hollis, reporter on Maryland's Eastern Shore is back. What bothers many people is that her gambling godfather, Albie is also back. Albie played one year with the Orioles,but his life style and gambling ended his baseball career abruptly. He lives from opportunity to failed opportunity. This time he is setting up an Elvis interpreter contest for a mobster to whom he owes money. When these Elvis impersonators begin to turn up murdered, Albie is the logical suspect. Hollis must clear him with the help of her ghostly ex-husband Sam, accompanied by stern warnings of her policeman boy friend to stay out of it. This book will keep you trying to come up with the solution while laughing out loud. A wonderful concept for both comedy and mystery that Chappell handles with a light professional touch. Great reading especially for those of us who grew up with George and Marian Kirby in the Topper series.

Helen Chappell isn't a nationally known author, though she could easily become one with this series. It is indeed rare to find a quack as both a heroine and as an amateur sleuth. And it is an abolutely great idea to have a ghost as her partner -- especially if the ghost happens to be her long lost husband. Helen does well with this first novel in the series but she leaves a nagging feeling that she simply isn't up to the challenge. This book is a great start for a woman who basically isn't a very good, or a very convincing, writer. If you enjoy a good change of pace this is the book for you.

Helen Chappell's Slow-Dancing With the Angel of Death ranks right up there with the best books I've read this year.

I found myself identifying with the heroine, Hollis Ball, from the very first page. She is independent, intelligent, and hysterically funny.

The book begins with Hollis heading to the funeral of her wealthy, irresponsible ex-husband. Hollis may have loved Sam at one time, but she hasn't forgiven him for his past actions, and she certainly doesn't want to deal with his wealthy, obnoxious family members.

Unfortunately for Hollis, Sam may be dead, but he's definitely NOT gone. He begins appearing to Hollis at inopportune moments. At first she thinks she's cracking up from the stress, but she finally accepts that she is indeed being haunted by the ghost of her dead ex-husband.

Sam wants Hollis to investigate his death & she finds that she cannot refuse- after all, she is a reporter and her curiousity gets the best of her. She ends up stumbling across shady land deals, enviornmental terrorists, and crooked politicians.

The secondary characters in this book make it even better. Chappell paints a funny and believable portrait of the residents of the small Maryland town.

After reading this book, I ran out for the other two in the series, Dead Duck & Ghost of a Chance. They are just as good, if not better. I'm very glad someone recommended Helen Chappell's books to me.

A first mystery by an author of romances written under twopen names. "Slow Dancing..." introduces us to a solid, 'in your face' protagonist you will want to read about againwhen Chappell's next book in the series releases early in1997. Our heroine has been divorced and on her own as a newspaper reporter, since her rich, handsome and irresponsiblehubsand decided commitment wasn't for him and disappeareda few hours after their wedding. After ten years, she is summoned to the 'family home' because her ex has died. Asshe drives there her ex, as a rather cold, transparent vapor,appears by her side requesting that she find who killed him.She never could tell him no; only other problem, no one elsesees him, and the story delightfully proceeds. Ms. Chappeli

It is indeed unfortunate that the books in this series are going out of print so soon after being published. It is an excellent series which deserves to be remembered. It is too bad Hollis is being better developed as a character than her husband's ghost is. Helen's readers deserve very well rounded and complete characters who are worth their effort to read about and who are capable of not only carrying on delightful conversations, but who are constantly doing the unexpected as well. And it is also too bad that pointing out the fallacies of the newspaper business on a regular basis aren't being given the attention they deserve. Helen is trying her best to present this in a witty and sardonic manner but she doesn't always succeed. This can be done without detracting from the mystery at all but apparently Helen isn't up to the challenge.

In the second of her series involving crime beat reporter Hollis Ball, and her ghostly ex-husband, Sam Westcott, Chappell takes a sardonic look at both the court system and the colletor's mania that surrounds carved decoys.

When a judge is beaned with a priceless decoy, the first question on every carver and colletor's lips is, "It didn't hurt the decoy did it?" Hollis, of course has taken quite an interest in the dead judge herself, since she covered the trial where the opinionated jurist gave a wife killer a six-month sentence.

Though Hollis feels the judge got no more than justice, she agrees to look into the puzzle when a home town boy is accused.

And Hollis has her hands full. Besides the usual suspects, every lawyer who ever plead a case before him wanted the judge dead. Hollis' dead husband, Sam, steps in to keep her safe -- his mission in death, once more.

Hip deep in carvers, collectors, and lawyers, not to mention the former fiance of her "almost" boyfriend Officer Ormand Friendly, Hollis ends up as close to death as she is to the truth.

As a former reporter who covered the crime beat on a small town daily, and one who knows how to play Tonk, I have to say that Chappell, her well sanded wit and appreciation for the ridiculous side of the news business, is in rare form with this one.