What do you think?
Rate this book
A Darcy Cavanaugh Mystery #3
Mai Tai to Murder
Knives, poison, strangulation…ER nurse Darcy Cavanaugh is about to show-and-tell all kinds of deathly dos and don'ts for a mystery writers' workshop at sea. Teaching the Nurse's Guide to Murder seminar was a small price to pay for a Caribbean cruise in paradise. If only she didn't have to share deck space with her boyfriend's uptight mother! Aspiring novelist and wife to a powerful Virginia judge, Mrs. Skyler wishes her son had better breeding prospects than a redheaded Yankee from California. To make matters worse, the Skyler matriarch wants to submit her novel to a merciless agent whose biting criticism is matched only by her squawking, sailor-tongued parrot.
In a crazy twist, a real murder takes place and the judge's wife becomes the main suspect. To protect her boyfriend's mother, Darcy scrambles to peg the real killer from a tangled and nutty cast of desperate writers, overzealous fans, and distracting male cover models with killer abs.
In a crazy twist, a real murder takes place and the judge's wife becomes the main suspect. To protect her boyfriend's mother, Darcy scrambles to peg the real killer from a tangled and nutty cast of desperate writers, overzealous fans, and distracting male cover models with killer abs.
312 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2007
88 people want to read
About the author
Candy Calvert
6 books11 followers(from author's website)
In a nutshell, I’m a veteran ER nurse, Mom, and wife. I’m a native Californian in training as a Texan and loving it; can identify a Whooping Crane and a Black Crested Titmouse, do a passable Boot Scootin’ Boogie, and whip up a deceivingly decadent low-fat tiramisu. I own chili-pepper red cowboy boots and ocean cruises are hands down my favorite way to travel! Oh, you were asking about writing?
People always ask writers, “How long have you been writing?” For me, it would be more pertinent to ask when it was that I got serious about my writing. Without a doubt that would be April 12, 1997. That was the day that my horse launched me into the dirt, broke my neck in three places and gifted me with an acute awareness of the ephemeral quality of life. The neurosurgeon said that I was millimeters from the same fate as my longtime hero, Christopher Reeve. Even without the broken ribs and punctured lung, that was enough to take my breath away.
To say that a person re-evaluates her life at such times is an understatement. There was something I was meant to do, and I suddenly knew that I needed to write.
At the request of my pastor, and after I could use my arms well enough, I wrote a simple, but heartfelt account of the accident for my church. It became the basis for “By Accident,” the story published in “Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul.”
Coincidentally, about that same time I was awarded my healthcare system's “Nurse Excellence Award,” which evolved into some much needed educational R&R: A Caribbean Cruise to attend an onboard seminar of “Jocularity for Nurses”--the Therapeutic Benefits of Humor. Yes, Continuing Education Credit for drinking pina coladas and laughing! Don’t ya love it?
Thus my unique blend of story material evolved--shipboard comedy mixed with mystery, and always with a rich dollop of romance and a happy ending. Because I’ve learned that what we all need--what is the best medicine of all-- is to be loved, and to laugh deeply enough to free the joy in our souls.
I hope that my stories are good medicine for you!
Candy
In a nutshell, I’m a veteran ER nurse, Mom, and wife. I’m a native Californian in training as a Texan and loving it; can identify a Whooping Crane and a Black Crested Titmouse, do a passable Boot Scootin’ Boogie, and whip up a deceivingly decadent low-fat tiramisu. I own chili-pepper red cowboy boots and ocean cruises are hands down my favorite way to travel! Oh, you were asking about writing?
People always ask writers, “How long have you been writing?” For me, it would be more pertinent to ask when it was that I got serious about my writing. Without a doubt that would be April 12, 1997. That was the day that my horse launched me into the dirt, broke my neck in three places and gifted me with an acute awareness of the ephemeral quality of life. The neurosurgeon said that I was millimeters from the same fate as my longtime hero, Christopher Reeve. Even without the broken ribs and punctured lung, that was enough to take my breath away.
To say that a person re-evaluates her life at such times is an understatement. There was something I was meant to do, and I suddenly knew that I needed to write.
At the request of my pastor, and after I could use my arms well enough, I wrote a simple, but heartfelt account of the accident for my church. It became the basis for “By Accident,” the story published in “Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul.”
Coincidentally, about that same time I was awarded my healthcare system's “Nurse Excellence Award,” which evolved into some much needed educational R&R: A Caribbean Cruise to attend an onboard seminar of “Jocularity for Nurses”--the Therapeutic Benefits of Humor. Yes, Continuing Education Credit for drinking pina coladas and laughing! Don’t ya love it?
Thus my unique blend of story material evolved--shipboard comedy mixed with mystery, and always with a rich dollop of romance and a happy ending. Because I’ve learned that what we all need--what is the best medicine of all-- is to be loved, and to laugh deeply enough to free the joy in our souls.
I hope that my stories are good medicine for you!
Candy
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 20, 2017
Quick and easy read. Not very exciting and boring in parts. Got tired of Darcy worrying about Angela's feelings instead of standing up for herself. Guess I expected it to be better than it was.
Cute cover.
Cute cover.
March 4, 2017
Really fun read! Especially since it's about authors and the whole beginning author thing of trying to get an agent. This read was for my book club and I hadn't read books 1 and 2 first -- but am going back to read them. Darcy was such a great character that I'm bummed the series ended in 2007.
February 15, 2017
Fun read.
June 18, 2014
Another library find....
+ This was a quick and easy summer read. I finished it in just two days.
+ Cute ending for Darcy and Luke :)
+/- The story line was pretty cheesy and unrealistic at times, but there were some good twists in the mystery plot. It kept you guessing right up to the end who the killer was and his/her motive.
+ This was a quick and easy summer read. I finished it in just two days.
+ Cute ending for Darcy and Luke :)
+/- The story line was pretty cheesy and unrealistic at times, but there were some good twists in the mystery plot. It kept you guessing right up to the end who the killer was and his/her motive.
January 14, 2015
I must admit I skipped a large chunk out of the middle of this book, mostly because I couldn't stand it anymore. I knew whodunit from the get-go. I thought it was so ridiculous that Darcy kept worrying about Angela's poor little feelings, when it was obvious that she was perfectly able to stand up for herself.
I won't be reading any more of this series.
I won't be reading any more of this series.
January 7, 2008
I liked this book cause i enjoy reading mystery books, but there were couple of places where i got stuck at. But other then that, i liked it.
March 8, 2008
Cute little mystery. I'll check out another in the series.
July 23, 2008
Series is ok, slighly funny chick murder series as is popular after the Janet Evanovich phase, fun series slighly vapid character. I recommend if you like easy going mysteries
April 17, 2010
Mai Tai to Murder: A Darcy Cavanaugh Mystery by Candy Calvert (2007)
June 27, 2011
Nice beach read-cruise ship and murder workshops.
April 18, 2012
I really enjoyed this. Fast, fun reading.
August 14, 2013
Authors and cruise ships - I thought this would be a fun book. However, I there was no fun and I didn't like the storyline. I really didn't like the bird.
November 13, 2013
Didn't move along for me
May 16, 2014
Weak, weak, weak
December 14, 2014
Love her complex plots and character development. This was her third and last book she wrote in this series. I wish she would continue the series with the same main characters but change the venue.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews