2015 reading, August
142. Clam Wake - Mary Daheim - sometime in June & forgot to record. #29 in B&B series. Judith & Renie go to another aunt's house on another island in Puget Sound & find another murder (as usual.) There is a proposed ordinance that has deliberately divided the residents into two camps just to keep the opposition up and keep the neighborhood unchanged.
143. The Borgias: The Hidden History - G. J. Meyer 8/3/15 Very interesting. Debunks many of the fictions accepted as fact, due to diligence in checking source material, and questioning cui bono? In the slanders.
144. Lord of the Wings - Donna Andrews 8/5/15 Meg Lanslowe‘s town of Caerphilly, VA is having a Hallowe’en festival, with both PG-small kids stuff and Really Scary stuff for olders, complete with carnival rides. The mayor, one of Meg’s friends/partners in cleaning up the messes left by the previous establishment, has hired an assistant to do all the organizing Meg used to do as a volunteer. Meg isn’t upset, just relieved. But Lydia the organizer (whom I can’t read about without remembering Groucho Marx singing “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”) keeps dumping jobs onto Meg without sufficient info to do them. Meg’s grandfather the ecologist has a zoo with an exhibit called Creatures of the Night, part of which is bats, & another with Louisiana alligators. A foot is found by the first-grade tour group, they are hustled out, the foot retrieved & found to be fake after calling the cops, but then the zoo’s chain-link fence is found to be cut, and a body nearby - shot. The Chief of Police, another of Meg’s friends, takes charge, Meg finds a scavenger hunt list nearby, and off we go. Lots & lots of Further Developments!
145. Death by Inferior Design - Leslie Caine 8/6/15 Orphaned interior designer Evin takes a client wanting his bedroom redone over a weekend as a Christmas present for his wife. The job turns into a contest with another designer, the winning owner to get a Superbowl ticket, the loser to stay home with a neighbor. The wives come home early, suspicious of an affair, the neighbor dies the second day, supposedly of a heart attack. Evin has cyanide missing from her truck, a gift from her ex-boyfriend, a chemist - they were going to use it in a startup. She fears the dead man was poisoned with it & tells the police. He was poisoned, but arsenic - she is clear. The dead man turns out to be her biological father; the rest of the book is who is my mother, why & who killed him? Very complicated, first in a series at least 8 vols so far.
146. Lethal Treasures - Jane K. Cleland (#8) 8/7/15 Josie Prescott is an antiques/collectibles dealer on New Hampshire’s coast. Friendly competitors are Henri & Leigh Ann Dubois - he is French, she from Louisiana, now also living in NH. When a local storage facility has units with unpaid fees, there is a blind auction of the contents after 4 months of notifications to the renters. Josie & Henri & 3 other bidders go to this month’s sale; Josie wins 1 unit’s contents, Henri another. Henri finds several silent movie theater posters, original paintings. The rest of the contents are not what he & Leigh Ann stock & will probably consign them to Josie. Henri turns up dead the next day. It’s February, there is a major snowstorm - 2 feet, Josie is home alone, & she has a break-in. The security alarm doesn’t go off - power failure. She & the police chief can’t find anything missing, but she goes to stay the night with him & his girlfriend. Josie is framed for Henri’s murder, but has witnesses for her presence at work. Who & why?
148. Bright Hair About the Bone - Barbara Cleverly 8/9/15 Laetitia Talbot #2 In Burgundy, Letty is on a dig but also looking to discover her godfather’s murderer. Award winner, but I don’t see why. I have always liked Cleverly's Joe Sandilands books, but the Letty books not so much.
149. Well Read, Then Dead - Terrie Farley Moran 8/9/15 Sweet little old lady who owns an island near the Everglades is murdered - treasure hunters, or hotel developers? Two youngish women own a restaurant/bookstore promise the victim’s even older cousin they’ll find out. 4 star.
150. Murder Ties the Knot - Christy Fifield 8/14/15 Glory’s best friend Karen is remarrying her first & only husband, Karen’s mother flys in to be Momzilla rendering Karen Bridezilla, Glory has arranged for a wedding quilt but the maker Beth disappears. Two men’s bodies are found at Beth’s & her husband Everett’s home, Boomer the sheriff wants to Talk with them. This is near Pensacola, FL, with Navy tie-in, & Karen’s mother is married to a Navy captain in Security - a good guy, not in a cover-up. Anything else would be spoilers.
151. Murder with a Twist - Allyson K. Abbott 8/14/15 Bar owner assists police with insights from her syntheses - she hears color, tastes odors & emotions. Really 2 stories in 1 book. Don’t like enough for more.
152. Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen - Bill Crider 8/15/15 Sheriff Dan Rhodes’ new case: the owner of a beauty shop finds one of her employees dead the next morning, hit with a hair dryer. The dead woman was uncaring about dating other women’s husbands > lots of motives. But one of her male clients was shot the same night. Her death may have been unpremeditated, his was not. An abandoned building overlooks the beauty shop, the shop owner has seen movement there, so Dan goes up to investigate/see if there were witnesses to the murder. Two men rush out & knock him over the banister rail, run to the junk yard, & hide. The junk yard management is suspected of dealing in stolen metals, batteries, & catalytic converters - worth the effort. Rhodes is painstaking but moves when certain. Enjoyed.
153. Compound Murder - Bill Crider 8/15/15 Dan Rhodes, sheriff of (fictional) Blacklin County in Texas, is called to the beauty shop in the previous book: break-in, theft of hair extensions worth at least $75 each. Then he is called to the local community college - a professor is dead in the parking lot, having hit his head on the corner of a dumpster, possibly shoved into it. He was a disagreeable man, no obvious motive, but he was a stickler for following rules. One of his students was accused of plagiarism, resolved in the student’s favor, but the prof was unconvinced. The theft of valuable metals continues - copper from A/C units, aluminum gutters, et cetera, all of which is pertinent. Love the deadpan conversations.
154. A Call to Assembly : the Autobiography of a Musical Storyteller - Willie Ruff 8/16/15 Artist on the French horn & bass, both classical & jazz. EXCELLENT.
155. Killer Deal - Sheryl J. Anderson 8/17/15 Molly Forrester #3 Advertising mogul is murdered in the midst of getting a divorce from his rich wife. She is First Suspect, but the cops can’t find the gun. Molly’s editor wants a scoop & assigns Molly to do a profile of the widow, the advertising agency she inherits & the agency about to merge with the mogul’s, & the mogul’s harem of very talented women there. Molly’s homicide cop boyfriend is Very Unenthusiastic about this - the cop assigned is dirty.
156. Killer Riff - Sheryl J. Anderson 8/19/15 Molly Forrester #4 Music producer’s daughter wants an article for his legacy, not pointing out to The Publisher’s chief assistant that she thinks he was murdered, the medical examiner found accidental death, The Publisher makes Molly’s editor assign the article to Molly, Molly & her ex-beau the homicide cop are getting back together so he investigates a little & reluctantly. The producer also had 12 cassette tapes of his pet rock star as yet unproduced, which are missing. Possession would be motive for murder, though how to get them produced without the rest of the heirs getting in on it would be a problem. Widow of rock star, her son, mistress of rock star, her son, & producer’s daughter all semi-live together.
157. Chamomile Mourning - Laura Childs 8/21/15 Auctioneer at party for Charleston’s Historical Society shot, ex-mistress framed by wife, Theodosia finds whodunnit. I suspected this as soon as the character & her business were introduced., unusually for me.
158. Blood Orange Brewing - Laura Childs 8/21/15 Professional gadfly stabbed at a benefit for a Charleston house, SPOILER He had discovered illegal importation of animals for bird fanciers & game hunters.
159. Dragonwell Dead - Laura Childs 8/22/15 At a garden party, a commodities broker is poisoned. Later, his widow’s B&B is burned. Police think she might have killed him & burned the house for insurance. He was also an orchid collector & had a very rare one native to South Carolina. Wife gives his collection to Drayton, to the pique of a pompous collector who offered bucks for them. Unfortunately Drayton hadn’t picked them up before the fire. Drayton & Theodosia go canoeing to find another & are shot at & go over a waterfall without serious damage. SPOILER: Head of firm has fake Foreign Exchange set-up, broker was suspicious. Head of firm tries to kill Theo by leaving her in an old rice mill & burning it. She crawls out a brick tunnel & traps him in a cistern. Theo had also suspected broker’s assistant infatuated with him, framed for the arson by the Head of Firm, and the pompous orchid collector.
160. The Silver Needle Murder - Laura Childs 8/22/15 Charleston inaugurates a film festival, one of the directors is murdered onstage, another director makes a pest of himself to Theodosia, the president of the Historical Society’s granddaughter is a suspect, and someone with stagecraft is definitely involved.
161. Oolong Dead - Laura Childs 8/23/15 TV news anchor Addy murdered, Theodosia asked by the brother/ex-beau to investigate in co-ordination with police. Addy’s husband a real estate developer with plans to build condos & drain a swamp, having done so in Savannah. Addy also had a cameo pin given her by a jeweler/lover, which was a duplicate of one Theo saw. Different jeweler says it’s a fake. SPOILER: husband did it to get control of plantation.
162. The Teaberry Strangler - Laura Childs 8/23/15 A nearby shop owner is strangled, Theodosia witnesses from too far away to either stop or identify. Suspects: the boyfriend, a brand-new neighbor, a very rude neighbor, or if the victim was mistaken for Theo, her ex-beau Jory’s latest girlfriend whom he is trying to dump & who thinks Theo wants him back (NO). Other problems: hijacking of merchandise shipments, theft/deliberate cutting of the rope for Jory’s sailboat - Theo has to retrieve it.
163. Frill Kill - Laura Childs 8/27/15 Halloween in New Orleans, two years post-Katrina. Carmela has a very busy scrapbooking shop, her best friend Ava has a magic/voodoo shop (she doesn’t take the magical/voodoo part seriously). The week before Halloween Amber, a high fashion model for a local atelier, is murdered in the alley behind Carmela’s shop, Carmela finds the body & is attacked but isn’t sure whether her rescuer, Ava’s tarot card reader Giovanni, is also the murderer. Both he & his brother Santino also knew Amber, strange fibers were found on the body, & Santino has a wolf act. A local TV newshound, Kimber Breeze, has the same journalistic integrity as Fox News - only ratings matter - and has her cameraman, dressed as a werewolf, chasing Carmela at night, & is captured, telling all about Kimber. No further spoilers. Enjoyed.
164. Death by Didgeridoo - Barbara Venkataraman 8/27/15 novella Jamie Quinn, divorce lawyer #1 Jamie’s Asperger’s cousin Adam finds the body of his music teacher, killed with Adam’s didgeridoo, & is accused. He didn’t. Jamie gets help from one of her divorce clients, a PI with malleable ethics & a big appetite for women. Should have been a full-length novel. Enjoyed - 3.5 stars.
165. Death Swatch - Laura Childs 8/27/15 Archie, a friend & neighbor of the host Jekyl, who designs & builds floats for Mardi Gras, is strangled with barbed wire. Archie has been searching for Lafitte’s treasure for years. Archie also has a collection of rare & old coins. Carmela & Ava promise Jekyl to help find whodunnit, especially since he is being outmaneuvered by a krewe captain trying to sabotage the completion of 8 floats - the captain’s brother-in-law is a vastly inferior rival. No completion, no pay. The girls are also being shadowed by a Russian Mafia-type who runs guns & drugs.
166. Tragic Magic - Laura Childs 8/28/15 Melody has a new project, to turn a decrepit old house into Haunted Manor, with her business partner Olivia. Melody’s designer cancels, 2 weeks later she asks Carmela & Ava to finish the job & meet her at the house. Melody’s burning body falls from a window as Carmela & Ava leave, when Melody doesn’t appear for the meeting. Melody’s husband Garth is a suspect - their jewelry shop is on the verge of bankruptcy, Olivia (also a suspect) asks Carmela & Ava to continue, with a bonus if the project is completed in 3 weeks - which they can’t afford to pass up. Another suspect is Sawyer Barnes, a shady real estate developer, but none of them did it. Great ideas for a haunted house if money is no object for CGI and props.
167. Fiber & Brimstone - Laura Childs 8/29/15 It’s Halloween again in New Orleans. Carmela’s shop is jammed with scrapbookers, Ava’s Juju Voodoo going nuts. A financial advisor is murdered, nearly right in front of the girls. He had a Pozi scheme running, lots of Very Unhappy customers with motive. His widow’s new boyfriend is also murdered, & the girls find his body too. Lots of side plots with no real relation to the main plot, but entertaining.
168. Tender Is LeVine - Andrew Bergman 8/30/15 In 1950, Fritz Stern, a violinist with the NBC Symphony, suspected that a double was substituted for Toscanini, several other orchestra members agreed, they decided to hire Jack LeVine, a PI, to investigate, & the next day Stern is killed. NBC exec Sidney Aaron also hires LeVine to investigate Stern’s death, says Toscanini really is missing & wants LeVine to get him back. Lucky Luciano & Meyer Lansky also are major factors, as is Stern’s gorgeous daughter Barbara. Sort of funny & hair-raising at the same time; liked quite a lot.
143. The Borgias: The Hidden History - G. J. Meyer 8/3/15 Very interesting. Debunks many of the fictions accepted as fact, due to diligence in checking source material, and questioning cui bono? In the slanders.
144. Lord of the Wings - Donna Andrews 8/5/15 Meg Lanslowe‘s town of Caerphilly, VA is having a Hallowe’en festival, with both PG-small kids stuff and Really Scary stuff for olders, complete with carnival rides. The mayor, one of Meg’s friends/partners in cleaning up the messes left by the previous establishment, has hired an assistant to do all the organizing Meg used to do as a volunteer. Meg isn’t upset, just relieved. But Lydia the organizer (whom I can’t read about without remembering Groucho Marx singing “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”) keeps dumping jobs onto Meg without sufficient info to do them. Meg’s grandfather the ecologist has a zoo with an exhibit called Creatures of the Night, part of which is bats, & another with Louisiana alligators. A foot is found by the first-grade tour group, they are hustled out, the foot retrieved & found to be fake after calling the cops, but then the zoo’s chain-link fence is found to be cut, and a body nearby - shot. The Chief of Police, another of Meg’s friends, takes charge, Meg finds a scavenger hunt list nearby, and off we go. Lots & lots of Further Developments!
145. Death by Inferior Design - Leslie Caine 8/6/15 Orphaned interior designer Evin takes a client wanting his bedroom redone over a weekend as a Christmas present for his wife. The job turns into a contest with another designer, the winning owner to get a Superbowl ticket, the loser to stay home with a neighbor. The wives come home early, suspicious of an affair, the neighbor dies the second day, supposedly of a heart attack. Evin has cyanide missing from her truck, a gift from her ex-boyfriend, a chemist - they were going to use it in a startup. She fears the dead man was poisoned with it & tells the police. He was poisoned, but arsenic - she is clear. The dead man turns out to be her biological father; the rest of the book is who is my mother, why & who killed him? Very complicated, first in a series at least 8 vols so far.
146. Lethal Treasures - Jane K. Cleland (#8) 8/7/15 Josie Prescott is an antiques/collectibles dealer on New Hampshire’s coast. Friendly competitors are Henri & Leigh Ann Dubois - he is French, she from Louisiana, now also living in NH. When a local storage facility has units with unpaid fees, there is a blind auction of the contents after 4 months of notifications to the renters. Josie & Henri & 3 other bidders go to this month’s sale; Josie wins 1 unit’s contents, Henri another. Henri finds several silent movie theater posters, original paintings. The rest of the contents are not what he & Leigh Ann stock & will probably consign them to Josie. Henri turns up dead the next day. It’s February, there is a major snowstorm - 2 feet, Josie is home alone, & she has a break-in. The security alarm doesn’t go off - power failure. She & the police chief can’t find anything missing, but she goes to stay the night with him & his girlfriend. Josie is framed for Henri’s murder, but has witnesses for her presence at work. Who & why?
148. Bright Hair About the Bone - Barbara Cleverly 8/9/15 Laetitia Talbot #2 In Burgundy, Letty is on a dig but also looking to discover her godfather’s murderer. Award winner, but I don’t see why. I have always liked Cleverly's Joe Sandilands books, but the Letty books not so much.
149. Well Read, Then Dead - Terrie Farley Moran 8/9/15 Sweet little old lady who owns an island near the Everglades is murdered - treasure hunters, or hotel developers? Two youngish women own a restaurant/bookstore promise the victim’s even older cousin they’ll find out. 4 star.
150. Murder Ties the Knot - Christy Fifield 8/14/15 Glory’s best friend Karen is remarrying her first & only husband, Karen’s mother flys in to be Momzilla rendering Karen Bridezilla, Glory has arranged for a wedding quilt but the maker Beth disappears. Two men’s bodies are found at Beth’s & her husband Everett’s home, Boomer the sheriff wants to Talk with them. This is near Pensacola, FL, with Navy tie-in, & Karen’s mother is married to a Navy captain in Security - a good guy, not in a cover-up. Anything else would be spoilers.
151. Murder with a Twist - Allyson K. Abbott 8/14/15 Bar owner assists police with insights from her syntheses - she hears color, tastes odors & emotions. Really 2 stories in 1 book. Don’t like enough for more.
152. Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen - Bill Crider 8/15/15 Sheriff Dan Rhodes’ new case: the owner of a beauty shop finds one of her employees dead the next morning, hit with a hair dryer. The dead woman was uncaring about dating other women’s husbands > lots of motives. But one of her male clients was shot the same night. Her death may have been unpremeditated, his was not. An abandoned building overlooks the beauty shop, the shop owner has seen movement there, so Dan goes up to investigate/see if there were witnesses to the murder. Two men rush out & knock him over the banister rail, run to the junk yard, & hide. The junk yard management is suspected of dealing in stolen metals, batteries, & catalytic converters - worth the effort. Rhodes is painstaking but moves when certain. Enjoyed.
153. Compound Murder - Bill Crider 8/15/15 Dan Rhodes, sheriff of (fictional) Blacklin County in Texas, is called to the beauty shop in the previous book: break-in, theft of hair extensions worth at least $75 each. Then he is called to the local community college - a professor is dead in the parking lot, having hit his head on the corner of a dumpster, possibly shoved into it. He was a disagreeable man, no obvious motive, but he was a stickler for following rules. One of his students was accused of plagiarism, resolved in the student’s favor, but the prof was unconvinced. The theft of valuable metals continues - copper from A/C units, aluminum gutters, et cetera, all of which is pertinent. Love the deadpan conversations.
154. A Call to Assembly : the Autobiography of a Musical Storyteller - Willie Ruff 8/16/15 Artist on the French horn & bass, both classical & jazz. EXCELLENT.
155. Killer Deal - Sheryl J. Anderson 8/17/15 Molly Forrester #3 Advertising mogul is murdered in the midst of getting a divorce from his rich wife. She is First Suspect, but the cops can’t find the gun. Molly’s editor wants a scoop & assigns Molly to do a profile of the widow, the advertising agency she inherits & the agency about to merge with the mogul’s, & the mogul’s harem of very talented women there. Molly’s homicide cop boyfriend is Very Unenthusiastic about this - the cop assigned is dirty.
156. Killer Riff - Sheryl J. Anderson 8/19/15 Molly Forrester #4 Music producer’s daughter wants an article for his legacy, not pointing out to The Publisher’s chief assistant that she thinks he was murdered, the medical examiner found accidental death, The Publisher makes Molly’s editor assign the article to Molly, Molly & her ex-beau the homicide cop are getting back together so he investigates a little & reluctantly. The producer also had 12 cassette tapes of his pet rock star as yet unproduced, which are missing. Possession would be motive for murder, though how to get them produced without the rest of the heirs getting in on it would be a problem. Widow of rock star, her son, mistress of rock star, her son, & producer’s daughter all semi-live together.
157. Chamomile Mourning - Laura Childs 8/21/15 Auctioneer at party for Charleston’s Historical Society shot, ex-mistress framed by wife, Theodosia finds whodunnit. I suspected this as soon as the character & her business were introduced., unusually for me.
158. Blood Orange Brewing - Laura Childs 8/21/15 Professional gadfly stabbed at a benefit for a Charleston house, SPOILER He had discovered illegal importation of animals for bird fanciers & game hunters.
159. Dragonwell Dead - Laura Childs 8/22/15 At a garden party, a commodities broker is poisoned. Later, his widow’s B&B is burned. Police think she might have killed him & burned the house for insurance. He was also an orchid collector & had a very rare one native to South Carolina. Wife gives his collection to Drayton, to the pique of a pompous collector who offered bucks for them. Unfortunately Drayton hadn’t picked them up before the fire. Drayton & Theodosia go canoeing to find another & are shot at & go over a waterfall without serious damage. SPOILER: Head of firm has fake Foreign Exchange set-up, broker was suspicious. Head of firm tries to kill Theo by leaving her in an old rice mill & burning it. She crawls out a brick tunnel & traps him in a cistern. Theo had also suspected broker’s assistant infatuated with him, framed for the arson by the Head of Firm, and the pompous orchid collector.
160. The Silver Needle Murder - Laura Childs 8/22/15 Charleston inaugurates a film festival, one of the directors is murdered onstage, another director makes a pest of himself to Theodosia, the president of the Historical Society’s granddaughter is a suspect, and someone with stagecraft is definitely involved.
161. Oolong Dead - Laura Childs 8/23/15 TV news anchor Addy murdered, Theodosia asked by the brother/ex-beau to investigate in co-ordination with police. Addy’s husband a real estate developer with plans to build condos & drain a swamp, having done so in Savannah. Addy also had a cameo pin given her by a jeweler/lover, which was a duplicate of one Theo saw. Different jeweler says it’s a fake. SPOILER: husband did it to get control of plantation.
162. The Teaberry Strangler - Laura Childs 8/23/15 A nearby shop owner is strangled, Theodosia witnesses from too far away to either stop or identify. Suspects: the boyfriend, a brand-new neighbor, a very rude neighbor, or if the victim was mistaken for Theo, her ex-beau Jory’s latest girlfriend whom he is trying to dump & who thinks Theo wants him back (NO). Other problems: hijacking of merchandise shipments, theft/deliberate cutting of the rope for Jory’s sailboat - Theo has to retrieve it.
163. Frill Kill - Laura Childs 8/27/15 Halloween in New Orleans, two years post-Katrina. Carmela has a very busy scrapbooking shop, her best friend Ava has a magic/voodoo shop (she doesn’t take the magical/voodoo part seriously). The week before Halloween Amber, a high fashion model for a local atelier, is murdered in the alley behind Carmela’s shop, Carmela finds the body & is attacked but isn’t sure whether her rescuer, Ava’s tarot card reader Giovanni, is also the murderer. Both he & his brother Santino also knew Amber, strange fibers were found on the body, & Santino has a wolf act. A local TV newshound, Kimber Breeze, has the same journalistic integrity as Fox News - only ratings matter - and has her cameraman, dressed as a werewolf, chasing Carmela at night, & is captured, telling all about Kimber. No further spoilers. Enjoyed.
164. Death by Didgeridoo - Barbara Venkataraman 8/27/15 novella Jamie Quinn, divorce lawyer #1 Jamie’s Asperger’s cousin Adam finds the body of his music teacher, killed with Adam’s didgeridoo, & is accused. He didn’t. Jamie gets help from one of her divorce clients, a PI with malleable ethics & a big appetite for women. Should have been a full-length novel. Enjoyed - 3.5 stars.
165. Death Swatch - Laura Childs 8/27/15 Archie, a friend & neighbor of the host Jekyl, who designs & builds floats for Mardi Gras, is strangled with barbed wire. Archie has been searching for Lafitte’s treasure for years. Archie also has a collection of rare & old coins. Carmela & Ava promise Jekyl to help find whodunnit, especially since he is being outmaneuvered by a krewe captain trying to sabotage the completion of 8 floats - the captain’s brother-in-law is a vastly inferior rival. No completion, no pay. The girls are also being shadowed by a Russian Mafia-type who runs guns & drugs.
166. Tragic Magic - Laura Childs 8/28/15 Melody has a new project, to turn a decrepit old house into Haunted Manor, with her business partner Olivia. Melody’s designer cancels, 2 weeks later she asks Carmela & Ava to finish the job & meet her at the house. Melody’s burning body falls from a window as Carmela & Ava leave, when Melody doesn’t appear for the meeting. Melody’s husband Garth is a suspect - their jewelry shop is on the verge of bankruptcy, Olivia (also a suspect) asks Carmela & Ava to continue, with a bonus if the project is completed in 3 weeks - which they can’t afford to pass up. Another suspect is Sawyer Barnes, a shady real estate developer, but none of them did it. Great ideas for a haunted house if money is no object for CGI and props.
167. Fiber & Brimstone - Laura Childs 8/29/15 It’s Halloween again in New Orleans. Carmela’s shop is jammed with scrapbookers, Ava’s Juju Voodoo going nuts. A financial advisor is murdered, nearly right in front of the girls. He had a Pozi scheme running, lots of Very Unhappy customers with motive. His widow’s new boyfriend is also murdered, & the girls find his body too. Lots of side plots with no real relation to the main plot, but entertaining.
168. Tender Is LeVine - Andrew Bergman 8/30/15 In 1950, Fritz Stern, a violinist with the NBC Symphony, suspected that a double was substituted for Toscanini, several other orchestra members agreed, they decided to hire Jack LeVine, a PI, to investigate, & the next day Stern is killed. NBC exec Sidney Aaron also hires LeVine to investigate Stern’s death, says Toscanini really is missing & wants LeVine to get him back. Lucky Luciano & Meyer Lansky also are major factors, as is Stern’s gorgeous daughter Barbara. Sort of funny & hair-raising at the same time; liked quite a lot.