This is the first I've read of the Gregor Demarkian series where the murder hits in his Armenian neighborhood. His middle-aged, plain widow neighbor, Hannah Krekorian, holds a party for a man she started seeing recently. He is Paul Hazzard, a recovery guru who was acquitted four years before of killing his second wife. At Hannah's party, with Gregor in attendance, he in turn is murdered.

This was a good book, but not one of my favorite so far, in part because one or two of the characters are really obnoxious. Doesn't turn me off the series at all... Haddam has a talent for getting inside of people, and they are not always people one would like to know. ( )

#9 in the Gregor Demarkian Holiday Mystery series.

Valentine's Day is approaching, and Demarkian is worried--with just a few cupids and hearts decorating Cavanaugh St, something has to be wrong with Donna Moradanyan. But the spirit of the season seems to be affecting some of the residents anyway. Christopher Hannaford, Bennis' brother is in town--and starts an affair with Lida Arkmanian, a middle-aged neighbor of Demarkian's who is almost old enough to be Christopher's mother. Even more dramatic, Hanna Krekorian, another contemporary and neighbor of Demarkian's, has become infatuated with Paul Hazzard, a psychologist, who has two twin claims to fame: 1) he has been a hugely successful (in terms of money and fame) advocate of the recovery/New Age movement and 2) he was acquitted of the murder of his second wife Jacqueline in a notorious murder trial 4 years before. However, hannah knows none of these things--just that this very attractive WASP is showing her, a middle-aged frumpy widow, the kind of attention of which she has always dreamed.

But at a party of the neighborhood which Hannah throws to introduce Paul, any romantic dreams she entertains are short-lived when Paul is murdered right in her own bedroom and Hannah becomes the prime suspect. Naturally, Demarkian involves himself in the investigation.

This is one of Haddam's more humorous entries in an entertaining series. The description of the guest list and their behavior at the party is priceless. As usual, Haddam treats her Armenian-American characters with great affection and a sharp eye for eccentricity.

What is unusual in this story is that Haddam appears to have a real ax to grind with the self-help/recovery movement. All the main characters associated with it are painted in unflattering terms. One supporting character, a woman who was the victim of childhood sexual abuse, is especially damning in terms of describing the movement as deliberately designed to make permanent victims dependent on therapy for the rest of their lives. Certainly the dialogue Haddam creates for the main proponents is clearly psychobabble.

Other than that, the plot is good and all our favorite characters from Cavanaugh St. are back in force.

Highly recommended. ( )