Invitation to Murder Book Summary and Study Guide

Jennifer Shane has just used all her savings and inheritance money, and defied her older sister, to open her new shop, Custom Card Creations. She is, understandably, concerned that her venture will succeed. Jennifer designs and makes her own paper and cards. In addition, she sells materials for card making, and plans to give classes on the craft. So far, she has not had too many customers.

While she doesn't really want to design wedding invitations, when Mrs. Anne Albright writes a check for a very large sum as a deposit, Jennifer changes her mind. It is a large order – 400 invitations.

Shortly after Anne Albright leaves the store, the phone rings. A woman has misdialed, thinking she is speaking to someone named Donna. “Donna, you're my last chance. She's going to kill me if you don't tell her the truth.” Jennifer tells the woman that she's not Donna. Then, the woman says “Oh, no, she's here…It's too late for me, isn't it?” Jennifer says “Just before the line went dead, I heard a scream that will haunt me till the day I die.”

Jennifer's brother, Bradford, is the sheriff of their town,

Rebel Forge, VA. She calls him, saying, “Bradford, you've got to come to the shop… I think I just heard someone get murdered.” Before Jennifer can explain what happened, Bradford hangs up the phone and comes rushing over “…with lights flashing and siren blaring…”. When he arrives, and Jennifer explains that she heard the murder over the phone, he says, “If this is some kind of gag I'm going to lock you up.” While Bradford thinks that the call was a prank, he agrees to have his deputies -- Jody, Jim and Wayne -- know about what happened and have them keep their eyes open. When Bradford leaves there's another call, but it's a hang-up. Jennifer thinks that people are just rude.

The next day Bradford finds out the call was not a prank. Just after he arrives at Jennifer's apartment he gets a phone call from Jody. His deputy says “I need you at 136 Elm right away…We found a body, Bradford. She looks like she's barely out of her teens. It's pretty bad.”

Later, that same day Jennifer is going through the mail. “One letter stood out from the rest. There was no stamp, no postmark, not even an address on it. ‘JENNIFER' was the only thing printed on the front in large block letters. Inside it said ‘Forget what you heard, or you'll be next.”

Now, Jennifer, her family, friends and ex-fiance are all concerned about her. Jennnifer is the baby of the family; her sister, Sara Lynn, is the eldest and Bradford is the middle child. They were always protective of her and, now, even more so. Sara Lynn wants Jennifer to come, with her two cats, to stay with Sara Lynn and her family, but her husband is allergic to cats. Bradford wants Jennifer to stay at his house. Jennifer, however, wants to be on her own and maintain her independence. Her ex fiance, Greg Langston [she was engaged to him twice], who owns a pottery shop in town, wants to get back with her and feels this is just the opportunity. Jennifer, however, will not even have dinner with him. Finally, Sara Lynn, uninvited, comes to stay at Jennifer's house every night [and cooks delicious meals for her]. To “protect” Jennifer during the day, her Aunt Lillian [married and divorced five times] stays in the shop with her.

Finally, the dead woman is identified. Her name is Tina Mast; she is just barely twenty years old. She had been selected to be the maid of honor for Donna Albright's wedding – the wedding for which Jennifer is designing the invitations. Jennifer is getting more and more frightened.

One day Anne Albright comes to the shop. She is distraught. She's found out that her daughter, Donna, is pregnant so the wedding has to happen very soon. Also, she's decided to reduce the number of guests – 100 instead of 400. She needs those invitations right away!

Aunt Lillian turns out to be a Godsend. Not only is she very excited about working in the shop [for free!] and helping the customers, she is very enthusiastic about learning the craft and, in addition, wants to help Jennifer solve the murder. In the past, Jennifer has had ideas that have helped her brother, the sheriff.

Jennifer wants to see the house where the murder took place. She thinks she may find something that the crime scene investigators missed. However, since citizens are not permitted on active crime scenes, Bradford gives her one dollar, hiring her as a “consultant.” Wearing a disguise taken from Lillian's extensive collection of clothes and wigs [so that if the murderer sees her she will not recognize her] Jennifer enters the house with Bradford. When she looks in the bathroom, she finds an earring under the toilet bowl. Also, when Bradford lifts the cover of the toilet bowl, they find blood inside.

It turns out that every member of the wedding party received a pair of those earrings. Even Larry, the groom, who always wears an earring in one ear, has them. Jennifer thinks that, if she can find the person who has only one earring, she will have found the murderer. She and Lillian start asking questions.

Bradford brings Jennifer some distressing news. Tina Mast was pregnant when she was killed. What does this have to do with the wedding?

It turns out that, at one point when Donna and Larry were having problems with their relationship, Larry had an affair with Tina, and Tina became pregnant.

Anne Albright thinks that Tina wants Larry for herself and will try to stop the wedding. Since Anne wants a husband for her pregnant daughter, and a father for her grandchild, she kills Tina. [Anne is also missing one earring.]

She then tries to kill Jennifer, to keep her from talking, but doesn't succeed.

Jennifer goes on making and selling cards and, we believe, solving more crimes.

Best part of story, including ending: I liked the story because it was fast paced, well written, and because I cared about the characters.

Best scene in story: In my favorite scene, Jennifer's Aunt Lillian gets all sorts of information regarding the alibi, and confirmation of the alibi, of one of the suspects, without either the suspect or the person confirming the alibi knowing what she is doing.

Opinion about the main character: I like the fact that Jennifer Shane is ready to take the emotional and financial risk to open her own business, and because she is loyal to her family. I dislike the fact that she is often snippy and offhand with people.