BINGO BARGE MURDER

A gay Minneapolis coffee-shop owner’s loyalty to an old friend turns her into a reluctant sleuth.

When his boss, Kinky Anderson, is found dead on his sleazy bingo barge, Shay O’Hanlon’s lifelong friend Coop thinks that his recent firing has made him a top suspect. So Shay and her landlady and mother figure, Eddy Quartermaine, agree to hide Coop in a secret room over the garage of the building in which Shay’s store, The Rabbit Hole, and her apartment are located. While Shay’s partner Kate holds things together at The Rabbit Hole, Shay and Coop start their sleuthing by breaking into the barge in search of clues. They find some tapes that show the killer but barely escape with their lives when two bumbling but still dangerous mobsters arrive on the scene. The mobsters kidnap Eddy and demand that the pair return the tape and a missing truckload of nuts. Shay finds it hard to lie to attractive detective JT Bordeaux, who was a regular at the Rabbit Hole before her transfer. But she and Coop continue their breaking and entering, extending their turf to a junkyard from which they rescue a starving dog who seems delighted to go with them. Madcap dangers continue until they can find a way to prove Coop innocent.

A mildly amusing debut, with the attractive lesbian sleuth yet another Stephanie Plum wannabe.