Three bedrooms, two baths, one very dead corpse

James's sparkling debut introduces an appealing new sleuth, dizzy Palms Springs, Calif., realtor Amanda Thorne. Still adjusting to single life after divorcing Alex, her super successful but decidedly gay husband, Amanda yearns to become Apex Realty's number one agent. Sadly, her first showing of a major listing is a total disaster when she discovers environmentalist Doc Winters fatally poisoned. As Amanda races to clear her name, Alex lends support and police detective Ken Becker offers welcome romantic distraction. Since Doc was against the development of land on the Chino Cone, a local landmark, Amanda suspects that pro-development realtor Mary Dodge might be guilty. The subsequent murders of another agent and Doc's girlfriend add a stressful twist, and Amanda figures there's more at stake than just closing a deal or saving the environment. Witty, accident-prone Amanda should attract fans of Rick Copp, Laura Levine, and R.T. Jordan. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Hosting a broker's open house is a natural for a real-estate agent. But Amanda Thorne turns it into a three-ring circus when she arrives late and finds a corpse in the living room. VERDICT In this series debut, Palm Springs will never survive Amanda's antics or her potty mouth. Sadly, the author does not have a clue about women. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Ex-spouses team up in a new venturesolving murdersin James's raucous debut.Alex and Amanda Thorne have a great relationship. They love and respect each other; they support each other in adventures and in their realty business; and they finish each other's sentences. It's too bad their marriage didn't fare as well. Apparently when Alex turned out to be gay, being married to Amanda just didn't make sense anymore. Amanda's determined to make it in the hot Palm Springs realty market without Alex's helpuntil she finds local activist Doc Winters dead and splayed on the floor of her latest listing. Because Alex can't resist the intrigue of a mystery, he and Amanda team up once more in witty banter and mystery-mongering. Cue the local residents, a series of over-the-top caricatures from Amanda's elderly, oversexed, oversharing neighbor Regina Belle to Doc's widow Monica Birdsong, whose fake breasts accompany her on her quest for higher consciousness. As a bonus, Alex isn't the only man taking an active interest in Amanda's well-being. Hot homicide detective Ken Becker is keeping one eye on the case and the other eye...Though the precious dialogue steals the stage from the plot, the chapter titles alone are worth the price of admission.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.