You could tell that this novel was Harris’ first one published. It was ok. A fast read, little to think about. 3 stars. ( )

knowing a murderer is loose in her small Southern town changes Catherine's view of her neighbors. Four die to hide case of leprosy.

Not a bad quick read ... But oddest murder motive in any book I have read to date ( )

Well, this certainly no Sookie Stackhouse book. I was starting to think Harris had lost her touch when I noticed the copyright was from 1981. So I guess it's okay that the book wasn't too impressive ( )

Catherine Linton is back in her home town of Lowfield, Mississippi, after the death of her parents in a car accident. Catherine left her first job after college as a reporter and returned home to try to come to terms with her loss. She is working for the local weekly paper as the society reporter and trying to find her way out of the depression that she fell into when her parents died.

She has never felt that her parents' accident was really an accident but the sheriff who is also a family friend couldn't find any evidence that the car was tampered with. However, when Catherine stumbles upon the body of her doctor father's long-time nurse, her suspicions are aroused again. She begins to investigate and soon learns that her quiet little southern town is filled with buried secrets. Someone is willing to kill to keep their secret hidden and Catherine is in danger.

This book was written in 1981 and is Harris's first book. There is evidence that this story is set in an earlier time. Catherine is quick to light up a cigarette to relieve stress. The sheriff pussy-foots around telling Catherine that her father's office nurse was the local abortionist because that isn't something a man would say to a nice southern young lady. Catherine's attitude toward her family's former housekeeper who is black and her housekeeper's son who is now a sheriff's deputy reflect attitudes that aren't contemporary and were a little uncomfortable for this contemporary reader. The mystery is well done and certainly well written.

Completist fans of Charlaine Harris won't want to miss this story. ( )

An average murder mystery in which the murderer is obvious for most of the book, with a really weak motive. The setting is not a particularly interesting one, and neither are the characters.
I also found it really odd that Harris kept pointing out if a character was black, for no apparent reason- as if that was the defining characteristic that the reader needed to know. ( )

Charlaine Harris' first novel, back in print due to the popularity of the Sookie Stackhouse series (beginning with [b:Dead Until Dark|301082|Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)|Charlaine Harris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1277990312s/301082.jpg|479517]) and the TV series True Blood based on them.

A good mystery, without the paranormal elements that Harris fans may expect based on her more recent series, though one line suggests the germ of the idea behind the Harper Connelly series: When Catherine Linton has discovered her second dead body within a few days, she thinks to herself facetiously "People should hire me as a divining rod, to find dead bodies".

Didn't spot the solution coming - A good mystery. ( )

This is the first book I've read from Charlaine Harris that wasn't part of the Southern Vampire Mysteries series and I was just a little disappointed. I just love that series so much, I guess I was bound to be let down by something else. Sweet and Deadly was an ok book, but nothing that really stands out from all other mysteries. Bodies start showing up and in small town and it's up to the main character to figure out what's going on. Same basic story I've read a million times before, but if that's all you're looking for, it was fine. I enjoyed it and was looking forward to finding out the killer and motive at the end, so that's something. Worth a read if you see it somewhere, but not worth searching for, basically. ( )

I have not read any other Charlaine Harris novels, so cannot compare this one to her Sookie Stackhouse series. However, I was rather unimpressed with Sweet and Deadly and was only mildly appeased to learn that this was her first novel. While the writing was okay, the character development was minimal, at best. The reader gets no sense at all about the main character, Catherine, and thus feels no sympathy for her. She's a blank canvas. And none of the other characters are any more complex or developed.

I picked this book up in the Mystery section of my local library and was rather confused why it was a mystery. Okay, so we don't know who's killing people in this small town. But there is no real search for the murderer, just Catherine's bland ruminations and observations. Really, she simply stumbles into the solution. The plot didn't get her there, much less anything she did.

Finally, there was no sense of time, in that I had no idea when all this action was supposed to occur. Catherine, a small town newspaper reporter, uses a typewriter and the paper is produce on an old-fashioned press. But she's a single young woman living alone and driving herself around town, packing a pistol. Heck, her neighbor drives a Toyota. So when exactly is this story supposed to have happened?

It almost read as if it was the second novel in a series and the author assumed you had read the first book, so she skipped a lot of details that would have developed the story more fully. The only good news is that it was an easy and quick read. ( )

Quick read. Not as developed as some of her other books. ( )

A little bland, nothing like later Harris novels, but a quick read. ( )

This is Harris' first published novel and it shows. The mystery and character development are weak - lacking the the experience and clever plotting found in her later mystery series. And in those series, readers become invested in the spunky heroines like Sookie and Lily Bard. It's harder to connect with Catherine in this stor, especially since this is a stand alone novel. However, even here Harris' potential shows. This is a fast and easy cozy mystery. Serious mystery fans will be unimpressed, but the author's fans will probably enjoy this.
I'd give it 3.5 stars for the story, but I deducted half for this edition.

This new hardcover edition from Severn House is very nice, but also seriously overpriced at a retail of $28.95. The font is larger than standard, more like what you find in YA hardcover editions, and it has pictorial boards covered by a dust jacket with the same image. Collectors of Harris' work (like me) will want this hard to find novel, but casual readers would be better of buying the reissued mass market edition. ( )

Simple and unimaginative in comparison to Harris's current work. ( )

http://olvasonaplo.freeblog.hu/archives/2010/03/27/Charlaine_Harris_Fajo_szivvel... ( )

This was a good mystery. Not what I was expecting after reading the Sookie Stackhouse books. It was a fast read, kept you turning the page. ( )

I enjoyed this book, but the title makes no sense. ( )

Left me unsatisfied:

Charlaine Harris is my favorite author, so when I found out they were rereleasing the hard to find "Sweet and Deadly" I ordered it immediately.

Having been spoiled by fantastic characters such as Lily Bard, Aurora Teagarden, and Sookie Stackhouse, it was hard to really like Catherine Linton. Perhaps if this had been any other author, I would have been satisfied, but I expected more from Charlaine Harris. I do keep in mind that this was one of her first books, and her writing has grown in leaps and bounds since this was published. I think my biggest problem was that the ending seemed rushed to me, as if Catherine realized she only had a few more pages left to solve the mystery!

If you're new to Charlaine Harris, I'd skip this one. If you'd like to read some great novels by Charlaine Harris, (and I recommend you do!) try the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. (Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 1, A Bone To Pick: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Book 2, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, The Julius House: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 4, Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 5, Fool And His Honey: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 6, Last Scene Alive (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries), and Poppy Done To Death: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 8.)

Or if you'd like to try a different series by Charlaine Harris, check out the Lily Bard mysteries.(Shakespeare's Landlord (The First Lily Bard Mystery), "Shakespeare's Champion", Shakespeare's Christmas", "Shakespeare's Trollop", and Shakespeare's Counselor")

Or her new supernatural Southern Vampire Mysteries featuring telepath Sookie Stackhouse (Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Bk. 1), "Living Dead in Dallas", "Club Dead", "Dead to the World", "Dead as a Doornail", "Definitely Dead", and "All Together Dead") ( )

Before Sookie Stackhouse and even the Shakespeare series, Charlaine Harris was writing mysteries. This is a very early book (first published 1981) and it feels that way - there is promise here, that is later realized but not the hand of an experienced writer. Catherine Linton, of the Lintons of Lowfield, had her parents die in a mysterious car accident six months ago. And now she's found a body. She is quite young, and quite naive and she smokes in a genteel sort of way, which no heroine written today would (if she smoked, it would have a sort of conscious irony to it, or symbolize a death wish or contempt of life, but in this book, a nervous young woman simply smokes from time to time.) The love interest is a bit abrupt and the deaths come thick and fast. The laying out of a newspaper in 1981, just before computers hit, seems to make it even more quaint and old fashioned. This could have been set in the 50's and lost nothing of it's plot or appeal. A gentle, easy to read mystery, with a nice ending. A writer to look out for :) ( )

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