Real Estate, Murder, and Mayhem: A Vivianne Murphy Mystery

The title of this book should really be ‘A Large Helping of Real Estate with a Pinch of Murder and Mayhem’. The first 200 pages of this 228-page book are all about real estate. The murder and mayhem are squeezed into 20 pages toward the end.

The heroine, Vivianne Murphy, a broker for a real estate company, lives in Havenville in northwest Washington state. One of her clients, Venice, buys a nearby house and they soon become best friends. Later, Venice joins Vivianne’s company and then helps her realize her dream of establishing her own real estate business. This, plus much family history, accounts for most of the story.

To be fair, there are some interspersed incidents – one involving a serial rapist, for instance – and the antecedents of the murder, but not the murder itself, are also presented. The murder and mayhem, when they do arrive, are macabre in the extreme, far-fetched and totally out of character for the rest of the novel. The frequent attempts at humor are only mildly funny and usually followed by “No, just kidding” to make sure the reader gets the joke.

Real estate devotees may find Real Estate, Murder, and Mayhem appealing, but most mystery fans will feel shortchanged.