SEX ON MURDER ISLAND

Detective Luella van Horn is back, and this time she’s investigating a murder on a private island.

Marie Jones may have recently solved a murder case on the reality show Sex Island as her “sexy alter ego” Luella van Horn, but now she’s back in New York City. Broke, alone, and stuck in midtown Manhattan in the August heat, she’s moving out of an apartment she can’t afford and desperate for a break. But then she gets a case—a man named Mark Fontaine wants Luella to prove that his wife, Caitlin, is having an affair. And so Marie transforms into Luella again, complete with a blonde wig (no fake teeth needed this time, since she got veneers with the money she earned from her last case), and travels to Murder Island, a private island off the coast of New York City. Owned by a few ultrarich families, the island is mostly isolated, with just one ferry a day. Luella poses as Mark’s cousin and tries to befriend Caitlin in hopes she’ll let something slip—but then the man Luella suspects of being Caitlin’s secret lover is found dead. Luella doesn’t know who she can trust on an island full of eccentric billionaires. She finds herself drawn into their dysfunction and discovers a secret (and very weird) underground sex cult, way too much smooth jazz, and people who may not be what they seem. Firestone creates a wild, wacky world for Luella that’s somehow even funnier than the one in her first book, Murder on Sex Island (2025). Although Luella is delightfully strange on her own, the story gets even more enjoyable when she joins up with a ragtag group of new crime-solving friends, including a raunchy ferry captain and a determined librarian. The world of the wealthy island elite creates a perfectly over-the-top backdrop upon which Luella can unleash her unique brand of detective work. Let’s hope there’s a third Luella adventure coming soon.

A wonderfully weird mystery.