Champagne Kisses, Cyanide Dreams

by Ralph Graves

Book Overview

Growing up in Manhattan and attending Groton and Harvard, I learned to tolerate many frightful people. But you have to draw the line somewhere. I drew the line at Mildred Silk. Thus are we introduced... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567921795
• ISBN13: 9781567921793
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant psychological thriller

Lots of depth. Unexpected; Caught by the plot, one may miss the brilliant subtleties of character development. I need to read it again; this was a very interesting novel. I think this may be an underrated work.

Not so much a murder mystery as a Hollywood novel. Fun!

I found this to be a highly enjoyable read particularly since it is based on Martha's Vineyard, and shows a side we know about but rarely see. The characters aren't based on real people, but its easy to imagine who would play them in a movie. Jason's character reminded me of Dave Eggers in "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", which I also enjoyed.I found it easy to follow the who's who of characters and enough of a mystery to keep you trying to guess until the end.

a fun read

If you like mystery novels about celebrities, then "Champagne Kisses, Cyanide Dreams" should, on the whole, satisfy. The mystery unfolds mostly on the island of Martha's vineyard, at one of Mildred Silk's coveted dinner parties. Martha Silk is a rather poisonous but powerful writer and hostess, and most people take great care to stay on her good side. So that when Martha throws a dinner party to celebrate the publication of her latest tell all book, the dinner guests are understandably nervous and curious. Not Jason Alexander however. A rich and indolent young man, Jason has been invited to fill-in for an unavoidably detained guest. He's sure that this is going to be a dinner to remember and dine out on, and he's proved right when Mildred Silk keels over while sipping her after dinner drink. The cause of death proves to cyanide poisoning, and the police believe that the motive was to stop Mildred's book from being published. This would make nearly every single guest at the ill fated dinner suspects in the murder. And when the suspects themselves start dying one after the other, Jason enthusiastically throws himself into the pursuit of cyanide murderer.Ralph Graves droll and wry writing manner alone makes this novel worth reading. Mystery wise, it's a rather straight forward read with very few twists and turns and red herrings. And I found myself missing the old-fashioned 'grilling' of the suspects for dirt -- esp in a mystery novel about celebrities, some of that might have been rather fun. However, I did enjoy reading this novel very much.

Reading Wishes

Although the premise of this book was good, there were too many characters to keep straight. The author, pretty much, has "the island" as it actually is and the flow of the book is excellent. Next time less is more.