Champagne Kisses, Cyanide Dreams - Hardcover

Graves, Ralph

2.95

19 ratings by Goodreads

9781567921793: Champagne Kisses, Cyanide Dreams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1567921795 ISBN 13: 9781567921793

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2002

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"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 to Jason Arnold, occasional writer, bon vivant, one-time murder suspect (acquitted), and acerbic observer of his world the island of Martha's Vineyard the exclusive preserve of the rich, the privileged, and the famous. And few are more determinedly rich, privileged, or famous than Mildred Silk. Famous most of all for her acid tongue and general mean-spiritedness, Millie who knows everyone and everything worth knowing about everyone on the Vineyard is about to publish an extravagant, no-holds-barred memoir. But the presses may never roll, for she is murdered at her own party, in plain sight of nearly two dozen witnesses. The entire island, including her admirers and enemies, is aghast. Identifying the murder weapon proves easy: the tell-tale odor of bitter almonds could only mean cyanide. Rounding up the suspects is equally easy: the killer must have been present at the party. But to pinpoint the culprit is another story; every last one of the guests seems to have had an excellent motive for doing Millie in.

As the police begin to investigate, and all the suspects' stories begin to unravel, the most likely candidates also begin to die, mysteriously, all apparently by cyanide. Who could be responsible? What secrets could possibly have driven one of them to commit murder?

Champagne Kisses, Cyanide Dreams is a frequently sarcastic, often hilarious, and unflaggingly thrilling tour through the celebrity mansions, gardens and morgues of a Vineyard most tourists never see. Ralph Graves is a suave and urbane guide who manages to tell a wonderful story (with a totally unexpected d�nouement) while managing to be very funny, very suspenseful, and, just like this book, always very entertaining.

PRAISE FOR RALPH GRAVES:
I salute Ralph Graves for his nifty detail and his consummate gift of surprise. Norman Mailer

Rich, sophisticated, vivid: the kind of sweeping, lusty adventure novel we never get anymore. Shana Alexander

Share of Honor is a rousing book, fiction made especially vivid by Ralph Graves's respect for historical truth, his absolutely sure sense of place. David McCullough

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From Publishers Weekly:

A series of brazen poisonings on Martha's Vineyard should keep readers guessing in this clever mystery from former Time and Life editor Graves. While unlikely to stem the island's tourist influx, the novel's dastardly deeds may give the celebrity population pause: the perpetrator, well masked for most of the book, uses cyanide-laced libations to douse a succession of stars. The Vineyard, though, emerges unscathed. Indeed, narrator Jason Arnold, a lifelong summer resident, as often rhapsodizes about the island's beaches, bistros and bookstores as he laments overcrowding or tweaks his Waspy compatriots. A sometime writer with a busy libido and a warped sense of humor, the 30-ish Jason professes to "love murder... especially when the victim is someone I dislike." One such is author Millie Silk, the deliciously wicked witch of the West Chop colony. After penning a "venomous" expos‚ of her rich and famous friends, she becomes the first murder victim. Jason revels in being a suspect. His cool bravado ingratiates him to the reader as well as to homicide detectives the better to follow their efforts to obtain Millie's elusive manuscript. While some may grow impatient with the killer's belabored confession, those who enjoy celeb bashing should delight as Graves lays waste to media moguls, skirt-chasing pols, preening stars, New Age gurus and other narcissists, who provide ready fodder for the Vineyard's paparazzi. Likewise, the game of matching fictional figures to their real-life counterparts should spark lively debate on the cocktail party circuit in Edgartown and other toney enclaves.

From Booklist:

Thirty-four-year-old occasional writer Jason Arnold's family has owned a place on Martha's Vineyard since before he was born: that and sufficient income to keep him from having to work steadily make him an occasional guest for Mildred Silk's famous parties. She throws one to announce her deliciously vicious, tell-all memoir, and since she knows everyone on the Vineyard, it promises much. But in front of all of her guests, she's poisoned--cyanide in her green Chartreuse--and Jason is intrigued. A beautiful fiftysomething actress, a software mogul, Millie's publisher, a diva, and numerous others all had reason to wish the victim dead. This stylish and sly whodunit, marred only by its preposterous ending, crackles along nicely, driven by Vineyard gossip, publishing chicanery, and the genial narrator, who loves being a suspect. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

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