TWICE AS DEAD

The death of an event planner spells more than double trouble for a Southern California paralegal and her yuppie boss.

Finding Shirley Pearson’s corpse in a coatroom while guests dance the Electric Slide at Hannah Washington’s wedding poses a variety of problems for Odelia Grey (Corpse on the Cob, 2010, etc.). First, in a fit of mother-of-the-bride outrage, Zee Washington threatens to brain her best friend with a coat hanger if she dares disrupt Hannah’s nuptials with something as tacky as a dead body. Second, stylish Shirley turns out to be, at least technically, still a guy. Third, Doug Pearson, the guy Shirley is or used to be, reportedly died 14 years ago after sticking up a bank in Minnesota. But fourth and foremost, her coat room discovery confirms Odelia’s status as Corpse Magnet of the Century, an honor her husband Greg and brother Clark fear will make her a target in her own right. They won’t help her investigate, even when former classmate Clarice Hollowell presents her with a list of people who, like Doug, supposedly shuffled off this mortal coil years ago, but whose alter egos now seem to have bought it for real. And Detective Dev Frye certainly doesn’t want Odelia messing around in police business. That leaves Odelia’s boss, smart but arrogant Mike Steele, who’s surprisingly willing to be Odelia’s Watson, even if it means a night of Drag Queen Bingo at Billie’s Holliday, Newport Beach’s answer to Hamburger Mary’s. Sleuthing spirals so quickly out of control in Odelia’s loopy sixth that you can’t tell the corpses without a scorecard.