Author name:
Marcia Talley,
Nevada Barr,
J. D. Robb,
Nancy Pickard,
Lisa Scottoline,
Pam O'Shaughnessy,
Mary O'Shaughnessy,
J. A. Jance,
Faye Kellerman,
Mary Jane Clark,
Anne Perry,
Diana Gabbaldon,
Val McDermid,
Laurie R. King
Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780312980191
ISBN number: 0312980191
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: September 16, 2002
Publishing house: St. Martin's Minotaur
Sale Popularity Level: 392999
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The promise of discretion and pampering-and a long-overdue reconciliation with her mother-draws Caroline Blessing, the young wife of a newly-elected Congressman, to the fancy Phoenix Spa. But after her very first night in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, Caroline wakes to find the rich and famous guests in turmoil and under suspicion: the spa's flamboyant and ambitious owner has been murdered. As the secrets come out-and the body count rises, can Caroline keep herself from becoming the subsequent victim?
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Sometimes, when a book has been in my TBR pile for a long time, I kick myself for waiting so long to read it. I've had Naked Came the Phoenix for 5 years, and as far as I'm concerned, I might as well have left it in the TBR pile for another 5.
Naked Came the Phoenix is a serial novel--each author writes one chapter, building on what went before, but without collaborating with the other authors. Reading the book with that in mind is the only way to enjoy it. It starts out with senator's wife Caroline Blessing and her ambitious mother going to a spa owned by an old acquaintance of her mother's. The spa is populated with a variety of the rich and famous--an aging rock star, a young supermodel and her manager, a famous movie star, etc. Then the owner of the spa is killed, and in true Agatha Christie fashion, it seems everyone has a potential motive.
I'd been warned that the story started slow, then picked up with the second chapter, written by J. D. Robb. I took this with a grain of salt, since it came from Nora fans, but found it to be absolutely true. The very first chapter was excruciatingly dull. The second chapter was, indeed, more lively, and the characters developed actual personalities. But that faded away, as subsequent chapters focused more on introducing new plot twists and all too often either ignoring or contradicting what happened in previous chapters.
As a mystery, it falls flat because of the contradictions--for example, several characters' ages seemed to change from chapter to chapter, a real problem because age was a clue to one of the mystery threads. Another one was the disposition of the spa--in one chapter, a character had purchased enough shares in the company to be the owner anyway, and in the subsequent chapter, it became a matter of inheritance instead.
But what was fun was looking at it from outside the story, imagining the authors rubbing their hands in glee, saying "let's see what you do with this!" while scrambling to deal with the twists the previous authors had handed them.
I bought Naked Came the Phoenix as soon as it came out, because I'm a fan of two of the authors: J. D. Robb and Diana Gabaldon. I've since become a fan of Laurie R. King as well, so I'd had, if not high hopes for the book, at least higher hopes. Still, it completes three author's collections (I'm pretty sure I have all of King's books--the paperbacks, at least), and the purchase did benefit breast cancer research, so I'm not sorry I bought it.
Rated by buyers -
I enjoyed the book, but the last chapter was kind of a dumping ground for everything. Somehow the author of the last chapter threw it all together to end the story --- but it was a mish mosh that I didn't follow very well. I read it because a couple of my favorite writers were in the "pack" --- Mary Jane Clark, particularly. The last chapter was too long and just a mess, in my opinion.
Rated by buyers -
The Phonenix, contrary to the one located on Gay Street, is an upscale spa for the rich and famous. The scene of five murders, this time the characters are all interrelated, which is uncovered in the final chapter. It was all rather convoluted, being the artistic endeavors of thirteen prominent writers, each for one chapter. This is the result of a project to copy the serial novels of the Thirties in which Agatha Cristie was involved. In 'Agatha,' the movie, she was incognito "shadowing" her nemesis in a steam room in England about the same time she was writing such (living a dream). Our Phoenix building downtown has been renovated into high priced condos for strange folks who moved here and think it is novel to live on the main street of this town. No Spa there, however, you have to go to Powell to the Fitness Center to find the hot tub and steam room.
The Phoenix in this story in segments is a place of myster with drugs, adoptions, murders all involved until the Chapter 13 which explains all in detail to the survivors who are all family, interrelated in a weird way. "A family, rising phoenixlike from the ashes." Caroline thanked God for bringint this man into her life; Tennessee congressman Doug Blessing with some secrets of his own. She hadd not "forced her way to freedom" because of an anticipated "need for Doug's more delicate plumbing." This written by a mystery writer as opposed to a romance novelist who would be more explicit. Just a slightly different way of phrasing, which I always used in the book reviews I gave to the literary club -- it was fun to confuse those who weren't napping. The Phoenix had a mud room with its own secret stash.
Some of the gathering of strong personalities include the beautiful made model (Adonis), the kinky actress, the green-haired rock star who went through N.A., the detective Toscana who sometimes acted like God ("and Toscana saw that it was good."), Dante, t he masseur, and Geoff, the assitant pastry chef. The sociopathic personality responsible for the deaths had no conscience, and was evil with no sense of honor. Knowledge was her weapon. A person can only ask, to be granted a wish for anything.
Led by Nevada Barr based this confusing story showing how a character can be killed in a spa. I review another book wherin the pivotal chatacter was killed in the steam room of the notel spa shortly before his scheduled assignation with the main person. So, this premise is nothing new, nor the format. What is different is t he freedom of each of these authors to develop their own characters and circumstances leading to the subsequent sequence of unusual, never-thought-of-before things a client could do at this exclusive Phoenix Spa. This serial format started in 1931 with 'The Floating Admiral' which was serialized in England. Marcia Talley, editor, discovers a link with that very first collaboration and declares, "We have come full circle."
Two more recent such workings are 'Naked Came the Stranger ' (1969) by "Newsday" and 'Naked Came the Manatee' serialized in the "Miami Herald."
Rated by buyers -
First of all, to enjoy this sort of novel, you have to be able to appreciate what's going on behind the scenes: backstabbing; plot-twisting; character reinventions. And I'm not talking about the story itself. I'm talking about what the 13 authors are trying to do to each other!
The genre originated wonderfully with the august members of the British Detection Club way back in 1931, in a "serial" novel in which the various authors contrived ways to skullduggle not only the reader but each other and try to make it almost impossible for the final writer to wrap everything up neatly and tie it with a bowknot. That effort, "The Floating Admiral," is still the very best of its type. More recently, it's been done with sparkling wit by the Miami bunch including Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry in a delicious romp entitled "Naked Came the Manatee."
Now it's been tackled by a baker's dozen of America's female mystery writers. Yes, the plot is silly. Yes, the characters aren't all that fully developed. But who cares? The enjoyment of this book, as the others, is in seeing what each successive writer is doing to skewer what has already been written (without, however, contradicting it) and send the story reeling in a provocatively new direction. New openings are abruptly cut off at the knees. (Is she dead? Or is she only concussive?) Contrasting scenarios challenge what you think you've already assuredly figured out.
It doesn't really matter who winds up having done what to whom. If you're enjoying the wicked twists being perpetrated not by the characters but by their creators, then what you're looking for is how the final writer responds to the challenge of wrapping everything up with no loose ends and no plot spins left twisting in the wind--not even the orange polkadot bikini! And in this regard, Laurie King shines splendidly.
As I closed the book, I was imagining the final dinner party those naughty thirteen were having after they all got to read King's inventive closure, and what a laugh they were enjoying. But the laughter is not at our expense. We share in it.
Rated by buyers -
This is a readable tale for a rainy evening, but using thirteen authhors for the thirteen chapters resulted in some extreme changes of direction. It sounded like a cast of characters with multiple personality disorders. Some chapters are better than others. Caroline's raid on the kitchen is really funny. But other chapters don't seem to come across as well. A few situations are transparent, and others are a bit of a stretch. Perhaps it ended up with too many twists and turns.
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