MAMA SEES STARS
by Deborah Sharp
Sparks fly when Hollywood comes to Himmarshee.
Mace Bauer has taken time off from her regular job to work as a horse wrangler on a movie set. Of course, Mace’s mama and her two sisters (Mama Gets Hitched, 2010, etc.) are right there to help out, watch the movie stars in action and find the widely unpopular executive producer dead at the horse corral. Even after Mace’s on-again/off-again boyfriend, sexy Cuban detective Carlos, arrives on the scene and takes over the case, Mace can’t help feel curious about whodunit. There’s a good deal of tension on the set as actors angle to beef up their parts and publicity. Mama ups the ante, and incidentally shows her own star quality, when she lands a small role in the movie. Mace, meanwhile, is distracted when her high-school squeeze turns up as cattle wrangler and pays her enough attention to make Carlos jealous. Then she’s nearly killed by flying glass when a huge light explodes. Nor is she alone in her travails. Toby, the sexually confused teen heartthrob, is almost run over in the parking lot, and leading man Greg Tilton barely escapes being poisoned by a tuna sandwich. Although Mace’s sleuthing puts her life in danger, it’s her love life that gives her sleepless nights.
Sharp combines a workmanlike mystery with an amusing tale of life and love in the kind of Florida town that tourists rarely see.