Murder by Design : A Rick Domino Mystery

by Jon P. Bloch | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 0312313128 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 4/11/2004
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6 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, April 11, 2004
I bought this book (via the InsightOut book club) because it looked like a campy, funny mystery; however, since it's a sequel to "Best Murder of the Year" I'll try to read that one first - and hope it doesn't make me regret picking this one up on spec!

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, August 31, 2004
While I still haven't read the first Rick Domino book, I picked this up on a whim last night and read it through, laughing out loud much of the way! Turns out the plot centers around a show Very Much Like Trading Spaces, complete with the country/chintz designer and the shirtless-hunk designer and the wacko designer, the perky host, and the hunky carpenter, among others. Narrator/hero Rick Domino is a bitchy, sarcastic Hollywood gossip-columnist; in this book he's tapped by his boss to appear on the show as one of the teams of homeowners who switch places and redesign a room in each other's house. Eventually one of the designers turns up dead [many of the real-life show's participants may find this highly satisfactory], and the story follows Rick and his pal, recently-out cop Terry ("not the most colorful towel in the bathhouse"), as they dig into the pasts of the show's staff and turn up ever more convoluted connections. Some of the clues involve the themes of various rooms; for example, here's a description of "the body-piercing room":
In this infamous room in an otherwise respectable Hollywood home, Helena first glued flesh-colored ultra-suede to the ceiling and walls - to resemble human skin. She then methodically fastened two thousand screw-eyes into the suede to look like body piercings. The floor was covered in hand-painted "tattoos." Furniture included her famous "whip chair," in which she Super-glued sex fantasy whips to an authentic Eames chair. The finishing touch was a ten-foot papier mache sculpture of an ear with twenty wire coat hangers for "earrings."
(If you think that's totally unbelievable, you haven't been watching the real-life shows; they have some designers who would most certainly have done this if they'd thought of it!)

The book does have some shortcomings. The mystery isn't all that complex - I'd figured out the killer by page 100-something (though I didn't have the motive quite right), and if I can figure it out you can bet that aficionados will have no trouble with it. The characters are on the shallow side, though as they're nearly all in show biz perhaps that's intentional {grin}. Even Rick and Terry don't show a lot of depth - although there are some amusing bits about Terry's attempts to find true love (and Rick's blindness to his own jealousy). [Side note: I read this book without having read its predecessor; there were a few references to events from the previous book but not so many that I felt disadvantaged by not having read it. I think this book stands on its own pretty well, fwiw.]

For me the most hilarious bits all had to do with the riffs that author Bloch did on the real-life TV show. If you've never seen it you'll miss half of the humor in the book, but if you have seen it [especially if you've watched it a lot, along with its superior but equally weird British forebear, Changing Rooms] I predict you'll be giggling all the way through - and trying to match the book's characters with the real-life designers or carpenters or hosts.

This is definitely in the light-and-fluffy category - not a lot of depth here at all. It was fun, though, and I expect I'll hunt up the previous book to see if Bloch's work is as amusing without the Trading Spaces jokes!

Journal Entry 3 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, September 3, 2004
I'm offering this for a bookray. If interested please PM me, indicating whether or not you can mail internationally, and whether you have a preference for your position in the list. (I don't generally reply to request-for-bookring PMs unless they include a specific question; instead, I add the names to the list in this journal entry as they come in. If you've sent a PM and do not see your name here within a few hours, PM again and post a reply to the bookring offer in the forums, just in case your PMs aren't getting through to me.)

Bookray/ring instructions:

When you receive the book, please journal it, and PM the next person in line for their address so you'll have it ready when you've finished the book.
Note: even if you've sent books to that person before, please PM them before mailing this one, to confirm that the address is correct and that they're able to take on a bookring book at this time.
Try and read the book promptly - ideally, within a month of receiving it. (If you expect to take longer, you can request to be put at the end of the list. If you find you're swamped with other books when the person before you contacts you about the bookring, you can ask to be skipped, and then let me know whether you'd like to be moved down the list or dropped entirely. If you receive the book and find it's taking longer than you'd planned to get through it, I'd appreciate an update in its journal entries or on your profile, just to let me and the other participants know you haven't forgotten it.)

When you're ready to pass the book along, please make another journal entry containing your comments about the book and stating where you've sent it, and set the book's status code to "traveling". [If you find that you're having problems contacting the next person in line, or don't think you can manage to mail the book as originally agreed, please let me know; I'll be glad to try to work something out.]

***

Participants, in mailing order:

sgscarcliff [California]
HeyDollface [Illinois]

Journal Entry 4 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Controlled release:

I'm sending this to BCer sgscarcliff in California, to kick off the bookring. Hope you enjoy it!

Journal Entry 5 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Monday, October 18, 2004
Oops. The book showed up in my mail today, marked "insufficient address"; have gotten a corrected address from sgscarcliff and will be sending it out again tomorrow. If at first you don't succeed... {grin}

Journal Entry 6 by wingsgscarcliffwing on Friday, October 29, 2004
I just received this and will read as soon as I can. I have 2 books in front of it, but I will be able to mail by the end of November, if not earlier.

Tahks for sharing it.

Journal Entry 7 by wingsgscarcliffwing on Thursday, December 2, 2004
I enjoyed the book. It reminds me why I do not want to be on one of those design reality shows. I did find the book a little predictable, I had figureed out who the murder was early on.

It is still a good fun read

Journal Entry 8 by HeyDollface from Plainfield, Illinois USA on Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Received this book in the mail yesterday! A wonderful respite from the hectic, harried holidays. Will start this book ASAP...in the mood for a bit of farce. Thanks!

Journal Entry 9 by HeyDollface from Plainfield, Illinois USA on Monday, December 27, 2004
Wonderfully and aptly described by GoryDetails! The best part of the the story is the correlations between the "real" reality shows and the characters represented in this book. I think Mr. Bloch did a commendable job of inferring the wishes of some of the "watchers" of the design "reality" realm. Do we really want to see something happen to Hi ..., I mean Helena? As a reformed design reality junkie (who owns her own autographed picture of Vern), this book made me backslide a little...but it was well worth the risk!
Thank you GoryDetails!

Journal Entry 10 by HeyDollface from Plainfield, Illinois USA on Monday, January 31, 2005
I'm finally sending this book on its way. (After a month long bout with colds and flu)...yes, I have disinfected it along with most of my house. I'm sending it to another bookcrosser as a surprise...Shhh!

Journal Entry 11 by Shadie from Indian Trail, North Carolina USA on Tuesday, February 8, 2005
What a fun surprise! I got this in the mail and immediately sat down to read it. It was a fun book, although I must confess that I had it figured out rather quickly. Still, it was fun to watch Rick and Terry's relationship. The characters were quite entertaining!
I will hang on to this for a little while to see if there is anyone I think would like it. If anyone has any ideas about whom to send it along to, let me know!

Thanks, HeyDollFace! I can't wait to plant those seeds! :)

Journal Entry 12 by alrescate from Strafford, Missouri USA on Monday, June 19, 2006
Shadie gave me this book in the shadow of the St. Louis Arch. I think I've heard of this series and I'm looking forward to reading this book soon!

Journal Entry 13 by alrescate from Strafford, Missouri USA on Monday, December 3, 2007
I'm a bad, bad BookCrosser! I've had this book for quite some time now...it got lost on Mt. Toberead.

I enjoyed reading this even if it was easy to figure out "who-dun-it." The main characters lack depth and are predictable but that didn't keep this from being a fun read. I might have to check out some of Bloch's other work.

I'll try to either release this into the wild or pass it on to another BookCrosser as soon as I can. It's been stuck with me so long it deserves to move along!

Journal Entry 14 by alrescate from Strafford, Missouri USA on Tuesday, January 8, 2008
This is off to Kansas.

Journal Entry 15 by BountifulPots at Olathe, Kansas USA on Monday, August 25, 2014
Just realized I never journaled this one! ACK! I'm so sorry!

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