JD Robb picks up the tempo in chapter two She breaths life into Caroline s character by bringing her down to earth in a funny little adventure brought about by hunger She also adds a hunky pool boy to the ever growing list of characters and kicks things into high gear by killing off the snooty spa owner. Things get silly as each character seems to harbor some dirty secret and the murder count becomes ridiculously high as each author adds their own little twists and turns to the story and attempts to pick up where the previous author left off A friend of mine described the characters as manic depressives and she was right on Each character switches moods and personalities from chapter to chapter which only added to the sense of fun Eventually.

Claudia DeVries body is found packed into a mud bath Her death would be only the first in a series of murders that would plague the fancy spa Everyone is a suspect and no one is safe The detective in charge of the investigation relies on an Agatha Christie scenario as he calls all of the suspects into the library for a final showdown. This is a serial novel written by 13 female mystery writers each given a chapter to continue the story in their own way The profits from the book were donated to breast cancer research The story was fun with a lot of red herrings thrown in for good measure Secrets are revealed along with myriad motives for murder Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel This is a serial novel in the manner of Naked Came the Manatee.

The Floating Admiral and others Thirteen women mystery crime writers collaberated to write this novel and gave a portion of the royalties to breast cancer research. Contributing authors are Chapter 1 Navada BarrChapter 2 Nora Roberts J D Robb Chapter 3 Nancy PickardChapter 4 Lisa ScottolineChapter 5 Perri O Shaughnessy Pam and Mary Chapter 6 J A JanceChapter 7 Faye KellermanChapter 8 Mary Jane ClarkChapter 9 Marcia Talley editor and contributor Chapter 10 Anne PerryChapter 11 Diana GabaldonChapter 12 Val McDermidChapter 13 Laurie R King I would like to give this book than two stars but I really can t go there It was fun to read and I enjoyed the various twists the authors tookbut did not like the ending sorry.

I give twenty stars to the contribution to breast cancer research Way to go authoresses Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel A novel where each chapter is written by a different author I was hypercritical of the chapters because there were different authors The editor should have caught the inconsistencies The ending was too HEA I starred my favorite chapters I m not sure this book was successful because all of the characters seemed so schizophrenic but that s because some of the authors just seemed to ignore the way the characters were in the last chapter and went with what they wanted I m going to give this book 2 stars Chapter 1 Nevada Barr The writing in this chapter is so unlike other things I ve read by Nevada Barr Melodramatic.

And her mother Hilda who have come to stay at the Phoenix Spa after her fathers death This chapter is a bit slow but Nora Roberts comes in next and sends Caroline on a fun outing to raid the spa pantry and she introduces a barely clad pool boy and the first murder The characters personalities change a bit depending on who is writing them but overall the book was fun Laurie R King does a good job wrapping everything up though I think she went a bit overboard the last few pages An enjoyable book as long as it isn t taken too seriously Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel Another serial novel is out.

Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award winning author of DEAD MAN DANCING and six previous mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Hannah Ives who like the author is a breast cancer survivor Marcia is author editor of two star studded collaborative novels NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX and ID KILL FOR THAT set in a fashionable health spa and an exclusive gated community respectively Her short stories appear in than a dozen collections including With Love Marjorie Ann and Safety First both Agatha award nominees and the multi award winning Too Many Cooks a humorous retelling of Shakespeares Macbeth from the viewpoint of the three witches A recent story Driven to Distraction won the Agatha Award was nominated for an Anthony and w Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award winning author of DEAD MAN DANCING and six previous mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Hannah Ives who like the author is a breast cancer survivor Marcia is author editor of two star studded collaborative novels NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX and ID KILL FOR THAT set in a fashionable health spa and an exclusive gated community respectively Her short stories appear in than a dozen collections including With Love Marjorie Ann and Safety First both Agatha award nominees and the multi award winning Too Many Cooks a humorous retelling of Shakespeares Macbeth from the viewpoint of the three witches A recent story Driven to Distraction won the Agatha Award was nominated for an Anthony and was reprinted in THE DANGEROUS BRIDE AND 21 OF THE YEARS FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES. Marcia is immediate past president of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime serves as Secretary for Sisters in Crime National and is on the board of the Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America She divides her time between Annapolis Maryland and an antique sailboat in the Bahamas site_link I had fun reading this fun spoof of a novel Learning the history behind serial novels then reading this book for a fun story and getting exactly that It s not to be taken too seriously Just enjoy it for what it is Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel I picked this up because I assumed it was an anthology of short stories and I saw JD Robb s name on it Rather it s a serial mystery each chapter written by a different author Sounds really intriguing right Especially with a bunch of well known well liked successful authors Totally wrong This really sucked the characters were awful and boring Caroline could have been likeable except every time she started to grow a bit of a spine they let her fall apart again The other characters were all very unlikeable and their personalities seemed a bit disjointed probably due to having a different author each chapter A single author can show a different side to a character and their story still seems continuous but it seemed like each time you saw a new facet of the character you didnt see quite enough for it to feel genuine At some point once you realize that for some reason each guest was essentially summoned by Claudia you realize that this feels an awfully lot like And Then There Were None then they start dying off and it s annoying to have all these great authors ripping off Agatha Christie Then you get to the denouement in the final chapter and it s than annoying and into tacky I was extremely irked at Douglas and Caroline at the end one that Douglas would believe any such stupid nonsense he was told WITHOUT DNA TESTING and two that Caroline just went right back to him Plus once you find out who she s related too you realize her family is made up of all these amazing and talented and cool people and she s just a waste of space Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel Written by many different detective fiction authors all women this book is at times rather disjointed and somewhat unbelievable All that being said it was great fun I enjoyed seeing my favorite authors writing in a different setting and even a different time Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel Alot of fun Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel Naked Came The Phoenix was a book selection for two of my local reading groups because we were intrigued by its unusual format Twelve bestselling mystery and suspense author joined together to contribute a chapter to this murder mystery soap opera The catch Each other must pick up where the last left off and continue the story using the same cast of characters all of who get zanier as the story progresses. The opening chapter written by Nevada Barr sets up the story and in my opinion was the driest dullest entry in the entire book It s here that the lifeless main characters are introduced luckily they don t stay that way After the recent death of her father Caroline wife of a big shot Congressman agrees to spend some quality bonding time with her difficult mother at a high end health spa Caroline s fellow guests at the spa include an aging rock legend a quirky psychic a starving model and loads of other oddballs and Hollywood it types. I d read another book like Naked Came The Phoenix for the fun factor alone But would I read this one again Umm probably not Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel

Naked Came the Phoenix: A Serial Novel By Marcia Talley

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The Phoenix Spa located deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is the posh destination for those affluent enough to afford its services Run by married couple Claudia and Raoul DeVries the spa is full of beautiful people at the moment including a famous model a celebrated actress an aging rock star a Hollywood producer and the wife of a newly elected congressman and her mother Not long after the doors open to this motley cast of characters Naked Came the Stranger Ms King. Chapter 3 Nancy Pickard Back to gothic with a lot of sexual innuendo No humor whatsoever and now the mom isn t nice again The end of the chapter needed dramatic duh duh duh on the piano. Chapter 4 Lisa Scottoline First the bathing suit was purple in previous chapters And second spaghettini meatball sandwich Third a cop s wife wears cocktail dresses for everyday dinners Huh I liked the Caroline dialogue not the Vince which was too much Chapter 5 Perri O Shaughnessy There s just been a murder so you go off with a stranger after he snuck in your room Chapter 6 J A Jance Now the mom s nice again Why couldn t they pick a violin instead of cello It s kind of ridiculous Now Vince is normal and not such a caricature But even with all that this was a good chapter. Chapter 7 Faye Kellerman I don t know I m just a simple musician Stupid sentence I have a feeling Faye didn t get a chance to read all of the chapters because she s forgotten what Caroline was asked for Chapter 8 Mary Jane Clark Okay who goes to the sauna and lays there nude while the police are investigating a murder And why did Caroline go there Makes no sense Why are the staff still working when the owner was murdered Chapter 9 Marcia Talley He flushed to the lobes of his exquisite ears What middle aged man has exquisite ears Now this previously unfeeling unconcerned man is mourning his wife I don t think this author read the previous chapters either. Chapter 10 Anne Perry An okay chapter a little dated with the divorce dilemma Chapter 11 Diana Gabaldon Another person who doesn t know their parents Is it 3 people now The ending of that chapter was a surprise. Chapter 13 Laurie R King I thought the thong started out purple Unsatisfying ending Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel This book is unique in that each chapter is written by a different author Most of the authors write mysteries except for Diana Galbadon and I have read books by most of them The authors couldn t change anything that had previously happened and I could tell some of them had fun dropping bombshells for others to clean up Nevada Barr starts things off by introducing Caroline a congressman s wife this time written by female mystery authors Authoresses Remember Naked Came the Manatee This is the same sort of deal The thirteen chapters are each written by a different author in the tradition of that 1969 book Naked Came the Stranger. Stranger was purportedly written by a Connecticut housewife named Penelope Ashe but was in reality written by 24 Newsday journalists Editor Marcia Talley was approached by her publisher to do the book She knew Val McDermid and Laurie King and then contacted several other authors about the project including Nevada Barr Lisa Scottoline and the sisters Perri Mary and Pamela O Shaughnessy Each was given a month to complete her chapter. One of the things I really liked about Naked Came the Manatee was how each chapter demonstrated the author s style In Phoenix the chapters flow together so seamlessly you forget you re reading a serial I was particularly impressed with how well Laurie King wrapped up every loose end the others had created. The writing is pretty light Caroline Blessing our heroine takes her grieving mother to the Phoenix Spa for some RR It isn t long before trouble finds Caroline the spa s owner is murdered and left in a mud bath The story begins twisting there and keeps winding tighter until the end The characters are colorful and witty It s a fun read. Mary Jane Clark is a producer and writer at CBS News as well as the author of media thrillers Do You Want to Know a Secret 1998 Do You Promise Not to Tell 1999 Let Me Whisper In Your Ear 2000 and Close To You which came out in September 2001. Laurie R King writes two crime fiction series and has published 11 novels Her most recent work is Folly 2001 She has won the Edgar the Creasey and the Nero Wolfe awards and has been nominated for many others British author Val McDermid has published 15 novels and one non fiction book and has won the Gold Dagger and the French Grand Prix des Romans d Aventures Her most recent novel is A Place of Execution. Perri O Shaughnessy author of 5 New York Times bestselling novels is really two sisters who collaborate on a series of legal thrillers and short stories Their most recent release is Writ of Execution 2001. Author of the acclaimed Victorian series starring William Monk and Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Anne Perry has written than 30 novels including the 2001 release A Dish Taken Cold She has won many awards among them the Herodotus for Lifetime Achievement and the Edgar. Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times bestselling author of eight novels including legal thrillers Moment of Truth 2000 and Mistaken Identity 1999 Everywhere That Mary Went 1994 was nominated for the Edgar Award Final Appeal 1995 won the Edgar the next year Her latest novel The Vendetta Defense was released this year. Ohio author Marcia Talley just released Occasion of Revenge Her debut novel Sing It to Her Bones won the coveted Malice Domestic Grant in 1998 and was a Mystery Guild Featured Alternate for Fall 1999 Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel The promise of discretion and pampering and a long overdue reconciliation with her mother draws Caroline Blessing the young wife of a newly elected Congressman to the fancy Phoenix Spa But after her first night in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains Caroline wakes to find the rich and famous guests in turmoil and under suspicion the spa s flamboyant and ambitious owner has been murdered As the secrets come out and the body count rises can Caroline keep herself from becoming the next victim Naked Came the Phoenix A Serial Novel.

: After the slow start all dangling threads and over the top plot twists were neatly brought together by author Laurie King, However a little bit gothic romance in a way Chapter 2 J D Robb I m okay with J: D Robb s Death series Pretty depressing This wasn t I liked this chapter a lot A little playful I liked the mom and daughter interplay, Chapter 12 Val McDermid The police are the worst Another murder right under their noses That makes 3 in one day. Mississippi author Nevada Barr is the award winning author of the Anna Pigeon mystery series the latest is Blood Lure She is currently working on her tenth novel, Diana Gabaldon has just completed the fifth volume in her award winning Outlander series The Fiery Cross and is heading out on tour soon: A Jance writes two police procedural series featuring Detective J, Faye Kellerman is the author of 15 novels including Stalker A Novel and The Forgotten, Nancy Pickard is the author of two mystery series Her books include Confession and The Whole Truth which was recently nominated for an Edgar Award: D Robb Nora Roberts is the New York Times bestselling author of the futuristic In Death romantic suspense series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas Her most recent is Judgment In Death.J.P Beaumont 12 titles and Sheriff Joanna Brady 9 titles.J