MURDER AT THE MALE REVUE

Strippers may bring out the worst in some people, but murder is surely excessive.

Still working their way through the infamous bucket list that’s already landed them in trouble twice (Murder Under the Covered Bridge, 2016, etc.), the ladies of the Summer Ridge Bridge Club choose item No. 57—go to a male strip club—from reporter Joy McQueen’s list. Their caterer friend Mary Ruth’s agreement to supply the food for the buffet at a male revue fundraiser creates the perfect opportunity to mark off Joy’s item. Helping out are Francine and bubbly Charlotte, next-door neighbor to Town Council president Camille Ledfelter, who’s arranged the fundraiser. A series of food-related accidents causes the lights to go out, and a bloodcurdling scream sends Francine, a retired nurse, rushing backstage, where she finds that Camille’s been stabbed. Although the police warn them to butt out, Charlotte’s like a bulldog when it comes to sleuthing, and along with Francine and some of the other ladies, she takes up the hunt after Camille dies from her wounds. Eric, the nephew Camille raised, is a member of the revue, and the ladies offer to help arrange the funeral to stay close to him as a source of information. When Eric tells them that Camille was worth more than $2 million, a sum that seems suspiciously high for her business interests, they begin to suspect that Camille was blackmailing at least one person, perhaps more—and what would make a better motive for murder? Their knowledge of what’s happened in Brownsburg, Indiana, over the years leads them to several promising suspects and also to danger.

Mirth and murder make for a winning combination in this cozy whose sleuths are as quirky as the suspects.