Patience McKenna is a romance writer attending The Third Annual Conference of the American Writers of Romance. Over six feet tall and and extraordinarily thin, Patience McKenna writes romance novels to pay the bills and has recently accepted a contract with the Fires of Love Romance line. When she returns to her apartment after a funeral, she discovers the door is bolted. After summoning help they discover the dead body of fellow writer, Julie Simms. Patience has to solve the murder in order to prove her own innocence.

I have enjoyed Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian series so I thought I'd give Patience McKenna a try. I don't plan to continue the series but I did find some of the outrageous characters to be kind of entertaining. It reminded me of my mid-1970's obsession with Rosemary Rogers too. ( )

This is an entertaining "whodunit" murder mystery with a New York bite, not a cozy but not noir. It's about a series of murders in the romance publishing business, however there's no mention of a serial killer.

There's way too many characters, some of them with two names because they write novels under a nom-de-plume. I almost gave up on the book after a few chapters because of difficulty in keeping track of the characters. In the end it doesn't matter because none of the characters is fully developed, even the protagonist or the murderer.

I felt nothing for the protagonist, she is just there -- it would have improved the story to build some empathy for her.

The story is somewhat dated (written in 1984), e. g. people still smoke cigarettes, but it generally stands the test of time.

Despite the bother of too many characters and a lack of character development, it is a fun read and it was easy to get caught up in the pursuit of the murderer at the end.

I plan to read the next in the series to see if things improve. ( )

Sweet, Savage Death takes place in the world of category romance, starting with four pages of general editorial guidelines for writing for the fictitious 'Fires of Love' romance line. Nuggets of information and advice about that genre are sprinkled through the humor and murders like chopped nuts through the treat of your choice. I've quoted a couple of them.

Patience 'Pay' Campbell McKenna writes serious articles for serious magazines under her own name, but they're not enough to pay the rent on her New York City studio apartment. For that she writes catagory romances under two pen names. She's deathly afraid that those magazine editors might find out and refuse to let her write for them anymore.

It's 15 days until Christmas. Pay longs to be in Connecticut with her family. Instead, she's attending the funeral of the Queen of Category Romance writers. Myrra had been good to her. Myrra had also been eccentric, as the chapter one description of what decorations she wanted for her funeral will attest.
Myrra's death has been written off as a mugging, but if we readers don't know better from the start,
we will by the time Pay finds the next body. There will be more...

Pay McKenna doesn't take care of herself. She's six feet tall (182.88 cm). Even if she has a small frame, the minimum desirable weight for her height would be 138 pounds (62.595 kg). Pay weighs 125 (56.699) and has been fasting for 3 days because she couldn't fit into a size seven bathing suit. At least that explains why Pay isn't exactly alert when she finds that first body.

Someone is murdering people in the romance field and Pay is being framed for the jobs. She gets good advice from Nick Carras, a very tall and handsome lawyer friend of Pay's best friend, Phoebe. (Pay's lawyer boyfriend is worse than useless.) Pay insists on investigating on her own anyway.

Fellow animal lovers who share my horror when pets are killed in mysteries may read this one. There is a description of a distressing incident in Pay's past in chapter, but the present-day dog and kitten will be fine. They'll be fine despite the fact that the author lets characters feed them chocolate, a definite advantage to being fictional pets.

Chapter 12 starts with members of the Line Committee discussing nominees. I've quoted the opening. It gets worse for the members, so it's more fun for us. Chapter 15 gives us backstory for another rich category romance writer. It's no wonder Amelia Samson is so tough. Chapter 17 gives us the backstory of yet another writer, Lydia Wentworth. So that's why her agent made her wear her hair long no matter what was fashionable. Much of the time Pay makes me want to tear at my hair, but I loved her favorite dream in chapter 26. The Grand Ball for the romance writers convention starts in chapter 27. There Pay has best friend and kitten trouble at the same time. The description of the Queen of Hearts crown had me laughing loudly.

Speaking of the kitten, I loved her scenes, especially the way she proved Pay right about something to the homicide detective.

You don't have to be a romance fan to enjoy this book. It's not in the same style as the author's Gregor Demarkian series (written under the pen name 'Jane Haddam'). I love comedic mysteries, so I prefer McKenna. ( )

Patience McKenna is a magazine writer who pays the rent by writing romance novels. Her best friend, Phoebe (Weiss) Dameraux is a best-selling romance writer. When an agent is killed in Patience's apartment, the second suspicious death in the romance community in a short period of time, Patience is the main suspect. Patience, with the reluctant assistance of Phoebe's lawyer friend Nick, is determined to track down the real killer and figure out what is wrong in the romance business.

The first Patience McKenna mystery. ( )