A CUTE LITTLE MURDER

Murder stalks two high school friends who’ve reunited to produce a true-crime broadcast.

Since their web-based series Harlow Drake Investigates… pissed off many of their high school classmates in Tallen River, Illinois, by uncovering a cheating scandal, Harlow and her sidekick, Lainey Piper, have gone their separate ways. Harlow enjoys the limelight on the True Crime 24/7 network; Lainey toils away as a forensic accountant in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Lainey learns that showing corporate employers how their employees have been robbing them blind doesn’t always invite repeat customers. So, jarred by threats from a growing chorus of creditors, she tries supplementing her income by joining her old pal Harlow in her latest TV cold case investigation. Their goal: to solve the famous Prohibition-era disappearance of showgirl Marguerite Devereaux, who left for the Crossings Hotel on an island in Lake Michigan with her mobbed-up boyfriend and never returned. What could go wrong when two amateur sleuths, a bunch of production staffers, and two tech bros whose idea of fun includes opening champagne bottles with a sword try filming on an isolated island with no phone service, furnished with only one boat capable of reaching the mainland? Sharp-witted, self-reliant Lainey carries in her voluminous tote bag everything a modern heroine needs to cope with all conceivable emergencies: bar fights, fist fights, cat fights, secret passages leading to hidden rooms, spooky graveyards, and of course more murders. The sheer weight of all this incident overwhelms what could have been an ingenious puzzle.

Harper’s narrative proves that more isn’t always better.