"Brilliant comedy mixed with a damn good mystery plot" DAILY MAIL
"HOPE McINTYRE has a distinctive and completely engaging voice" Harley Jane Kozak, author of DATING DEAD MEN
"Plenty of action, some smart twists, and a fine line in kooky characters. Extremely promising." YORKSHIRE POST
"Engaging dialogue, a fascinating cast of offbeat characters, pretty solid plotting and light-handed humour." CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE
"Entertaining - always engaging - original and surprising." REVIEWINGTHEEVIDENCE.COM
"Mysterious and full of sassy wit, McIntyre's Lee Bartholomew ghostwriter novels are delightful and intriguing." ROMANTIC TIMES
"McIntyre vividly portrays the East End of Long Island and the eccentric characters who live there, any one of whom might be capable of murder. A winner all the way, Lee Bartholomew is one of the most engaging protagonists to come along in ages." BOOKLIST
"McINTYRE has a winner in her engaging protagonist and is adept at writing gripping mysteries that will keep you guessing until the end." BOOKLOONS.COM
"The light touch of HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST is deceptive, for there are serious issues and predicaments here, yet it is both smart and hugely enjoyable." ELIZABETH BUCHAN, author of REVENGE OF THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN
"If you mixed Bridget Jones with Monk, you'd get Lee Bartholomew, the recluse who is afraid of being alone. This is the thinking woman's chick lit - sexy, witty, but dealing with serious issues as well." RHYS BOWEN, author of the Evans Evans and Molly Murphy mysteries.
"A finely crafted mystery." LIBRARY JOURNAL
"McIntyre delivers a page-turner with a socially redeeeming message." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Readers will have trouble putting the books down. They will be puzzled as more and more facts and people get involved. Readers will guess repeatedly and be very surprised with the ending." BOOKREVIEWCAFE.COM
Following HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST, HOW TO MARRY A GHOST and KILLER DATE, now comes HELD TO RANSOM, the fourth book in the Lee Bartholomew series - published by Piatkus/Little Brown on January 15th 2009.
At the beginning of HELD TO RANSOM, ghostwriter Lee Bartholomew returns to her old stomping ground of The Hamptons on Long Island. But there is a difference in her status. Newly married, she is on her honeymoon - but finds herself accompanied by her mother-in-law and not her husband.
As soon as she arrives, Lee is asked to babysit a 7 year old boy to whom her step-brother Rufus has offered a summer vacation as part of the Fresh Air project. Raised in the urban squalor of the Manhattan projects, Kimothy Moses (Mo), has never been to the beach before, but on his first visit - and on Lee's watch - he is kidnapped.
Soon it appears that Mo was not the target - he has been mistaken for the adopted son of a celebrity actress - and indeed he is soon found locked in a bedroom in a rental cottage off the beaten track.
But he is not alone in the cottage. In the bathroom next door lies the body of a woman.
And so, far from relaxing on her honeymoon, even when her husband finally turns up, Lee is drawn into the escalation of fear that spreads throughout the neighborhood as she begins to suspct a link between the kidnapping and the murder, a link that could pose a threat to her own life.
* * * *
In KILLER DATE (Piatkus paperback, published January 15th 2009 - formerly published under the title HOW TO COOK FOR A GHOST in hardback) Lee visits her cousin Gussie deep in rural Devon where Gussie has gone to recuperate from a disastrous marriage. But now
Gussie appears to be in worse trouble than ever. In the restaurant where she is working, she has served a salad dressed in peanut oil to a woman with a peanut allergy and the woman has subsequently died. Gussie is held responsible for her death and fired.
The dead woman was on a blind date with an internet suitor who never showed up. His online name was "Mr Wright". When the body of another woman scheduled for a date with Mr Wright is found at the bottom of a quarry, Lee resolves to track down the identity of the mysterious internet lover and clear her cousin's name.
