Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #891677 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Customer Reviews

Rachel Benjamin, a strong and intelligent heroin!,
Rachel Benjamin is dreading watching her best friend Emma walk down the aisle with the vile and despicable Richard but despite the pact that she and her friends made long ago there is nothing that she can do to stop it. You see, years ago Rachel and her four friends made a pact to always let their girlfriends know if the person they are dating is...well, shall we say for lack of more appropriate wording, "wrong for them". And if the girlfriend in question does not heed their warnings they are to "take matters into their own hands". However, when Rachel finds Richard's corpse floating face down in Emma's family pool the morning of the impending nuptials, she cannot help but to wonder if one of her friends may have taken their little agreement too far.

Aside from the intriguing plot, one of the things that I enjoyed most about this lighthearted mystery was its strong and intelligent cast of characters. All of the women were smart and very successful and the men were all confident with out being overly aggressive. Which in turn makes it difficult for you to speculate on who could have committed such a crime when you are rooting for everyone to walk away from the incident with little to no repercussions. I thought that `THE PACT' was a smart, funny and well-written mystery that never took itself too seriously. I hope to see more of Rachel Benjamin and friends in the future, 4 ½ stars!!

Sidebar, for all of the reviewers who have commented on how conveniently diverse and multi-cultured the cast was, I hate to burst your bubble, but throwing in one Latina and women with a bunch of different hair colors does not a diverse cast make. :-)

Wow.
I brought this book with my remaining money, when I was at the airport and I needed something for the 9 hour flight home. I didn't really contemplate what the story was going to be like, i just skimmed through the blurb on the back and decided to buy it. I was in for a suprise though. The book is really a girly sort of book that you get into after reading the first chapter. The main character is believable, although there is some sort of fairy tale element to it. However, the whole murder mystery is great, and the way the author set up the victim's character is good, because you feel no remorse when finding that he has been murdered.

A really enjoyable light read with a good plot
Rachel Benjamin has had a close group of the same friends since they were in rooms together at Harvard. Together they made a pact that if one of them was in a relationship with someone awful; the others would do what it took to save them! So, when their friend Emma decides to marry the awful Richard, the friends decide that something should be done. Then, on the morning of the wedding Richard is found dead in the swimming pool, and it seems that one of the group has taken the pact a bit too far!

Rachel decides that she should investigate not only her friends but some other wedding guests who are staying at Emma's parent country retreat; including the handsome Peter Forrest.

What I really liked about this book was that is wasn't a romance novel dressed up as a mystery. The plot around Richard's death and the discovery of his killer is well thought out and engaging. The characters are good too.

This is a real page turner...I'm off to buy the other books in the series.