Sunday, April 12, 2015

Bye, Bye Love: A Cat DeLuca Mystery - K.J. Larsen

Bye, Bye Love: A Cat DeLuca Mystery
K.J. Larsen
Poisoned Pen, Apr 7 2015, $24.95
ISBN 9781464203855

While private dick Cat DeLuca drives from Chicago to her home in the burbs, her mom admonishes her for being a “hootchie stalker” and for not agreeing to a double wedding to her boyfriend Chance when her parents renew their vows.  In Bridgeport, the Pants on Fire Detective Agency owner takes her dog Inga for a run in a park when they find a corpse.  She pulls out of a pocket an envelope addressed to Cat’s paternal Uncle Joey, a less than ethical cop, containing a large sum of money.  However, before she acts on her discovery, someone Tasers Cat.  When she regains consciousness, the body is gone.  Cat assumes the killer never left the scene of the crime until the removal of the evidence.

The police including her family of cops warn Cat to stay out of their investigation and instead encourage her to help her dad with his vows and her mom by wearing her relative’s foot short wedding dress at a double I do ceremony.  Instead Cat makes inquiries that upset someone who wants the private Jane dead.

The fourth Cat DeLuca mystery (see Some Like it Hot, Liar, Liar, and Sticks and Stones) is an amusing energetic whodunit.  Though stereotypical stick figures, the DeLuca brood adds humor and their differences to Chance’s family will remind readers of when the Byrnes meet the Fockers. 


Harriet Klausner

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