A more complete quote from P.W. would be "A few of the stories, however, such as Joan Hess's lackluster 'The Maggody Files: Death in Bloom,' slip below par and many of the tales rely more on trick endings than on smart suspense."

The title says it all. The short stories in this book all contain, mothers, apple pie and most of all murder. I can't pick out a favorite having enjoyed them all. I recommend this book highly.

The April 12th issue, page 57, in a much abridged quote: Margaret Maron's "Growth Marks"--haunting; Ed Gorman's "Mom and Dad at Home"--eerie; Angela Zeman's "Hello?"--magical; and Nancy Pickard's "Out of Africa"--poignant.

"...the recipes--including for Mom's Brandied Apple Babies--provide a nice bonus."

Having read a couple of the Jenny Cain series at random, it was fun to finally read the book that set up the series. Indeed, I found myself liking Jenny a good deal more in this book than in some of the others. She displays a charming dry wit that I really enjoyed.

This book sets up the earmarks of the series. For me, a westerner, the clearest distinction is the strong sense of New England that permeates this book and series. Not that it is a foreign country, but certainly it is its own place. It's also fun to get insights on how foundations work -- a setting I haven't seen in other books.

Bottom line -- a debut book that is a good read in its own right.

I'm in the process of reading through the entire Jenny Cain series, trying to stick to the order in which Nancy Pickard wrote them. Generous Death was, as the others have been, a quick and very fun read! It's so easy to get caught up in the storyline and develop a true fondness for the characters. I thought I had this one figured out, but was pleased to be surprised in the end!

Ms. Jenny Cain attends the funeral of her own mother already feeling a bit distraught, but she is further ruffled by an unknown person shoving at her from behind, and whispering a cryptic "apology" in her ear. Jenny narrowly avoids toppling onto the coffin. There is also an unsigned card, and flowers, at the site--and all of this is enough to persuade Jenny that it's time to understand her mother's secret past. All she knows, first off, is that her mother suffered some kind of crushing mental breakdown back when Jenny was away in college, and around the time the family business, Cain's Clams, fell apart and was bought up.

From this bleak prelude spins out a story involving Jenny discovering a seemingly endless number of shocking secrets about her mother, each apparently tainting many old friends and mentors who are shown to have not always had the deceased woman's best interests at heart. Why, exactly, did Cain's Clams go bankrupt, and how did it affect mom? What secret confession did Jenny's mother give to crusty old Father Gower? What medical data is Doctor Farrell hiding about his former patient, now dead? Why did the local newspaper sweep certain information under the rug, a long time ago?

The novel is at its tensest when the next big question becomes: Who tries to kill Jenny in her garage?

Overall, this mystery delivers a fast-moving plot that progresses nicely, the more Jenny uncovers. Naturally, some of the dirt dug up is, from the reader's point of view, of the red-herring variety. A weakness of the plot would seem to be some contradictory behaviour on behalf of the person manipulating Jenny from behind the scenes; first, this person seems to be revealing to Jenny that she should be curious about certain things, but then this person is attempting to kill Jenny on the basis that she's finding out too much. Maybe I read the relevant portions too quick, but why does this person seem of two minds, giving Jenny reasons to be suspicious of stuff that has been left to lie, and then trying to impede her progress (if you want to call attempted murder "impeding her progress")?

One other thing: Though I was mostly happy with the plot, this mystery is one of many I have encountered that tends to portray males in a negative context, in subtle ways. I'm not talking about any attempts to create a strong-willed female lead in Jenny (though she is a bit of a crier). I'm refering instead to the total lack of decent, upstanding men in the book, besides Jenny's husband. Jenny has found the one nice male to be seen anywhere within the radius she can travel--her emotional support, her caregiver, her pillar of solidity in a bleak world--and every other guy is a rat, belonging to an Old Boy's Club that had ground down Jenny's mom, and now work to exert male dominance over Jenny too. Further, any women featured in this book who are performing morally questionable acts are sorta let off the hook since, one way or another, their misguided behaviour can be traced back to living in an "Old Boy's Club", male-dominated society. This theme creeps its way into a few mysteries geared to women, and I.O.U. is certainly not the exception. The underlying message would seem to be: find the one decent guy hiding out there to comfort you when you need it, and with him, get ready to face a world of vicious males who are not above guiding well-meaning women onto the wrong tracks.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, the mystery content was strong, with only a few warts.

Your taken to a world of a girl who suffers from horrible nightmares. Chasing after her in these nightmares, is the essence of all her fear, but when nightmares become reality, she and her family get more than they expect from a troubled teenager. I would recommend that anyone who enjoys nonstop action to read this. You may find yourself hiding in a corner when your through.

I actually liked this book better than Nancy Pickard's book "Bum Steer". The plot doesn't really lead the reader to a point where you can solve the mystery. I actually thought I had solved it twice. But it is pretty interesting anyway, although almost impossible to solve based on the clues. It also contains some bad language so sensitive readers beware.

This is a great mystery that will leave you puzzling over murders as well as hundred-year-old missing corpses. So many clues leave you guessing and then surprized in the end! I highly recommend this as well as all the Jenny Cain mysteries!!!

The First Lady Murders is an anthology of 20 murder mysteries involving a first lady. Each author was allowed to choose the first lady they wanted to build their mystery around so there are three stories which feature Edith Wilson. That does not take away from the book at all as it is interesting to see the diverse ways authors treat the same subject.

This book offers a pleasant introduction to 20 mystery authors. Two I especially enjoyed were Adams and Evil by Susan Booth Conroy and A Tale of Two Sisters by Richard Timothy Conroy. These two authors happen to be married. I will definitely look for other books by them.

Some of the stories were a bit contrived or relied too much upon ghost elements for my taste which is why I gave it a 4 overall rating. Sometimes I felt a bit like I was reading responses to a creative writing class assignment: Write a short story which has a murder and a first lady.

The results are uneven, but it is a clever idea and intriguing to read the variety of ways it was executed by the participating authors. This is a good candidate for a book to take to take on your summer vacation!

In this fourth of the Jenny Cain series Jenny prepares to marry her long-time boyfriend, police dective Geof Bushfield. Before that happens she gets involved with seemingly abused wives who appear to be murdering their husbands. The book delves into the the dynamics of abuse relationships and what happens to the women involved in them. Jenny also questions her forth- coming marriage to Geof while he is questioning if he wants to stay with the force. Although the book was written in 1987 it is still revalent to situations that are happening today. Perhaps the ending is a little too neatly tied up but still an enjoyable read as we get to know Jenny & Geof better.

I have to agree with most of what was written by others. If it were not that this book was written for charitable purposes ... I probably wouldn't have given it 3 stars. I was hard press to find three stories that were worth reading from beginning to end.

I did enjoy looking for the "thick" book, steak and fog in each story. In most of the stories it seemed that the authors stuck in the 3 elements listed as an after thought. The stories I enjoyed most were stories where there was some thought put into the plot.

Because this book was written for charity, I would encourage others to purchase it, read and review it.

With most short story collections, there's usually a common theme. In "The Plot Thickens," each author was required to incorporate the following three things into their story: a thick fog, a thick steak, and a thick book. Most are concealed cleverly and seamlessly in the story, but I still found myself looking for them like it was a Where's Waldo? game. Not surprisingly, most of the authors use a restaurant setting to integrate the steak, but at least Westlake does a little play on of words in his story.

Anyway, on to the following 11 short stories:

"How Far It Could Go" by Lawrence Block is a largely conversational story set in a restaurant, where a woman meets with a man she intends on hiring to "rough up" her ex-boyfriend over a cash settlement. I kept expecting some great twist at the end (never happened); still, not a bad story. >> "Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan -- An Egyptian mummy autopsy reveals a 1000+ year-old murder victim with the same fingerprints as a notorious gang member. Again, the ending didn't impress me, and the story seemed to jump unevenly from scene to scene. >> "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark -- A woman's creepy next-door neighbor breaks into her house through their shared basement wall (quite ingenious, in my opinion), in order for him to abduct her and keep her a prisoner in his home. Mary, being the brains behind this whole eradicate-American-illiterarcy thing (which this book donates a percentage to), not surprisingly has the longest "short" story in here, at approximately 40 pages, but it doesn't feel that long. It has an engrossing plot, and good characterization and alternating p.o.v. One of my faves in here.

"Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark -- An aspiring actress is called in to play the role of a chef in a commercial, but accidents start occurring on the set. A little predictable about the bad guy, but still good. >> "Revenge & Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille -- A woman meets with an old college friend who's now a literary agent, in the hopes he'll accept her manuscript. Another restaurant setting; in fact, two restaurants in this one. Good story, but the suspense twist doesn't happen until the last page. >> "The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich -- A bounty hunter and her partner-in-training search for the missing body of a Peeping Tom. Strong, unique characters. Quite funny. >> "Going Under" by Linda Fairstein -- A policewoman agrees to go undercover as a dental patient in order to catch a molesting dentist. Reading this one made me glad I never chose to go under while at the dentist's--just to be safe.

"Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley -- Two men find a dead body in the trunk of a car and get involved in solving the crime. A little confusing, probably because there were so many characters--dead and alive. >> "Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard was told in letter form and based on an actual mass murder in 1914. Short, good ending; however, since no motive was ever given in history, it's up to the reader to speculate on it. >> "The Road Trip" by Ann Rule -- A woman is harassed and followed by two guys in a semi-truck while on a road trip. Started out slow, but got better. >> "Take It Away" by Donald E. Westlake -- A police officer and his associates are on a stakeout in order to catch an overseas art smuggler. A great finale to this anthology. I got a laugh out of the ending.

In summary: "The Plot Thickens" is a pretty good mystery anthology. There are some dull stories, some entertaining ones--which can be said for most short story collections--but the majority are very good. Definitely worth reading if you're a fan of one or more of the authors in here.

"The Plot Thickens" is an anthology containing eleven stories from eleven of today's top mystery and suspense writers. To be honest, I hunted this book down solely for Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum short story, but found I enjoyed the whole thing. "The Plot Thickens" was written for a great cause, to raise money to fight illiteracy in the U.S., so you can feel good about where your money is going. Some of the stories are better than others and individual opinions will undoubtedly vary, but each tale includes a thick fog, a thick book, and a thick steak, and it's fun seeing how each author chose to work in those three elements.

1. "How Far it Could Go" by Lawrence Block is probably my least favourite story of the anthology. A man and a woman meet in a restaurant to discuss using violence to dissuade the woman's ex-husband from suing her, but how far will it go? Thin on plot, but Block creates an interesting mood. **1/2

2. "Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan tells the tale of an ancient Egyptian mummy autopsied and fingerprinted for interests' sake. But the findings bring to light a millennia's old unsolved murder and cast doubt on the only foolproof form of crime scene evidence. An intriguing and enjoyable story. ****

3. "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark is a great, suspenseful story. When a young woman becomes the latest unwilling houseguest of her serial killer neighbour, the race is on to find her before it's too late. A well-written and exciting tale. *****

4. "Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark introduces a struggling young actress who gets a break when she's chosen to play a cook in a steak sauce commercial. But she soon finds herself caught up in some real life drama and betrayal. A fun and entertaining story. ****

5. "Revenge and Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille is a deliciously twisted tale. When a woman gives her treasured autobiographical manuscript to her good friend who works as a literary agent, he gets a disturbing glimpse of the world through her eyes. But the aspiring author doesn't take criticism lightly, and lost in her own delusions, there's no telling what she'll do. A very good story. ****

6. "The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich is a Stephanie Plum story well worth tracking down. This time, bounty hunter Stephanie is on the trail of a burg resident with a penchant for peeping in windows and showing off his personal wares. But when she discovers his dead, naked body, which subsequently disappears, she's thrust into the middle of an exciting, and very amusing, mystery. A mystery that she is bound and determined to solve, with a little help from sidekick Lula and Grandma Mazur. A hilarious, well-written, and wonderful story. *****

7. "Going Under" by Linda Fairstein is a fun and original tale. An ambitious young police officer gets her big chance to make detective, as long as she's willing to let a dentist with wandering hands have his way with her once he puts her under! I really liked this story. ****

8. "Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley is a good story, though a bit tough to follow. When a man hired to transport a car finds a dead body in the trunk of that car, he goes to his closest friend for advice. And the two of them get themselves in deeper and deeper with angry mobsters, more bodies, and criminal schemes. ***1/2

9. "Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard is an original and enjoyable tale. A black servant details her arrival in a strange new household with her husband, and the events that led to a terrible tragedy. ****

10. "The Road Trip" by Ann Rule is an excellent story and one of the anthology's best. When a newly divorced woman heads on a business road trip, it provides her with the welcome opportunity to get away from her maniacal, jealous, and possessive ex-husband. But instead of getting some much-needed relaxation, she finds herself in the midst of a new and infinitely worse nightmare when she becomes the next target of an infamous serial killer. A tightly plotted and thrilling story. *****

11. "Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake rounds out the anthology nicely. When an FBI agent on a stakeout of a notorious art thief goes to get fast food for his team, a coincidental conversation with the next man in line turns out to be much, much more than it seems. A fun and intriguing tale. ****

Overall, "The Plot Thickens" is an entertaining mystery anthology that will satisfy readers. My favourite stories were the ones by Mary Higgins Clark, Janet Evanovich, and Ann Rule, but each and every one was worth reading. So give "The Plot Thickens" a try, and do your part in the fight against illiteracy.

I thought this was a good book. It starts out with a missing man who is then found dead. Who killed him.? There were many who hated him.

The book totally keeps you guessing and the ending is great.

It did not deserve only one star. It was a good book.

Ignore the rating of other critics. It is a wonderful read. Eugenia Potter is sympathetic and you just want to read the book in one sitting.

I wouldn't go so far as to compare Eugenia Potter with Jessica Fletcher. Potter is too laid back for that. But I do think that for a rather leasurely Cozy, this book is a fine read. Enjoy it for what it is and move on to the next title on your reading list. If you don't feel like spending money on this novel check it out at the local public library. You will still like reading it.

I have read many of Nancy Pickard's books & I have loved all of them until Confession. It starts out very slow. I put this book down the first time I started to read it but I went back to it. The second time I started to read it I almost put it down again but I know her books are good so I stayed with it. It did pick up a little & then it would get boring again. I did finish it & the ending was a surprise but not thrilling. It is not a book I will pick up and read again.

While the writing style was good and the plot was interesting, it was easy to imagine that this book had been written just a little too quickly. I was suprised by some of the plot holes and obviousnesses given the general high quality of the writing.