A plausible and exciting premise, famous characters, period movie glamour, and a blockbuster ending.
Hollywood society and mobsters mix when a famous actress tries to fulfill her legendary friend’s dying wish.
Bianca LaBelle, best known as adventure heroine Bianca Dangereuse, and Rudolph Valentino are making their first movie together. The two are good friends but not the lovers the rumor mill suggests. Rudy confides in Bianca, a down-to-earth farm girl from Oklahoma, who overcame dangerous challenges to become a star. Rudy’s been getting death threats. He’s fed up with his glamorous life but continues to meet his obligations. Bianca suggests that private eye Ted Oliver could help, but Rudy, fatalistic, heads out to promote Son of the Sheik in New York, where he becomes deathly ill. Catching the first train east, Bianca arrives just in time to talk with Rudy, who’s sure his fatal stomach problems are the result of poison. His death is chalked up to natural causes, but Bianca’s determined to find his killer. Back in California, she asks Oliver to investigate. He works almost exclusively for a mobster he dares not cross but agrees to do his best for Bianca. Who would want Rudy dead? Given his reputation, reasons Bianca, cherchez la femme. In trying to get close to a wealthy man whose daughter knew Rudy and has run off, Bianca and Oliver visit an offshore gambling ship. The results are enlightening but deadly.
A plausible and exciting premise, famous characters, period movie glamour, and a blockbuster ending.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4642-1350-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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The lavish food descriptions and appended recipes are the best parts of this anemic mystery.
Christmas is coming, but so is trouble for South Lick, Indiana.
Robbie Jordan, owner and chief cook at Pans ’N Pancakes, returns from solving a murder in California just in time for the holiday rush, which is complicated more than most Christmastimes by a number of surprises that disrupt her circle of friends. First, her assistant, Danna Beedle, gets a visit from Marcus Vandemere, a young biracial man claiming to be her half brother, an assertion that thrills Danna despite the doubts of some friends and relatives. Next comes a fire that nearly destroys the home of anesthesiologist Dr. William Geller, a racist whose wife, Tina, reportedly left him years ago. When a skeleton turns up in the attic, the not-so-esteemed doctor has some explaining to do. Robbie’s nemesis, Detective Octavia Slade, who recently married Robbie’s former boyfriend, is more willing than usual to accept help from Robbie, who has a knack for finding things out. The next to die is Tina’s twin, Toni, who knew Marcus from karate classes. Toni’s husband is the prime suspect, but Robbie’s convinced the fatalities are connected. With help from her boyfriend and her network of friends, she attempts to clear things up before the killer spoils her holiday by adding her to his list.
The lavish food descriptions and appended recipes are the best parts of this anemic mystery.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2317-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.
An aristocratic young mother proves a dab hand at solving murders in 1937.
Lady Georgiana O’Mara is a cousin to both the new King George VI and the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated to marry the rapacious Mrs. Simpson. She’s married to the Honorable Darcy O’Mara, heir to an Irish title, but they don’t have much money even though Darcy works for the government in a hush-hush position. Luckily, she’s the heir to her well-off godfather, who’s letting Georgie, Darcy, and their son, James, live in his home. Everything is going well until Georgie’s bossy sister-in-law, Fig, Duchess of Rannoch, sends a much-too-proper nanny to take care of James, and announces that she intends to visit herself to make sure things run as she insists they should. Thoroughly intimidated, Georgie unhappily puts up with her unwanted visitors. Darcy encourages Georgie to go to London to visit her friend Zou Zou, a Polish princess who might help her find a nanny more to her liking. When Georgie arrives at her friend’s house, Zou Zou is rushing off to a funeral for a young man who died in a tragic accident, but Georgie soon runs into another friend, Belinda, who’s just returned from Paris. Another young man has just died in an apparent accident, but there’s something that doesn’t sit well with Georgie about the deaths. The death of a third young man sets the alarm bells ringing, and a fourth death sends sirens blaring, urging Georgie to look for connections among the deceased. They were all Darcy’s age and all set to inherit estates. Why were they targeted for death?
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641392
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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