Crime for the books

Working as a PI in Sweet Mountain, Georgia, Lyla Moody has just finished helping Elaine Morgan, proprietor of a B & B called Magnolia Manor, refute a property claim by an estranged relative. When Lyla's mystery book club, the Jane Does, hosts a Halloween party at Magnolia Manor, complete with a staged murder, the relative is a victim of an unscripted gunshot. On the scene as a member of the Jane Does, police sergeant Rosa Landry tries to establish order. In the panic, witnesses leave and evidence is contaminated. In charge while the police chief is honeymooning, Rosa arrests Elaine. As Lyla and other Jane Does work to prove Elaine's innocence, reactions from Rosa seem out of character. Worse, there are social media posts and flyers distributed around town suggesting that there will be another murder and that Rosa is the target. Young, who also writes romances, weaves lots of romance through the narrative, giving this third in the series plenty of cross-genre appeal.

The Jane Doe Book Club continues to specialize in mysteries on and off the page. Lyla Moody, who started out working as a receptionist in the office of her private detective uncle Calvin in Sweet Mountain, Georgia, has become a successful sleuth in her own right. She's helped her boyfriend, Special Agent Brad Jones, crack a series of Jane Doe cases. But now their relationship seems to be developing some cracks of its own. The book club's Agatha Christie--themed murder hunt at Magnolia Manor is upended when the bed-and-breakfast's owner, Elaine Morgan, is threatened by her vengeful cousin, Patricia, and police officer Rosa Landry, a club member, gets involved. When the lights come back on during their staged mystery a little later, Patricia turns out to be dead for real. Rosa, who's been left in charge while Chief Quinn is on his honeymoon, is clearly in over her head. Brad reports seeing an officer who doesn't exist. And Quinn's cousin, another officer, doubts Rosa's ability to handle the crime scene. Rosa's suspicion of Elaine puts her at odds with her book club friends, who are taken aback when another murder is announced in the local paper. After Rosa's blamed for arresting Elaine on scant evidence, even her friends begin to doubt her. It takes all Lyla's prowess plus help from her friends to solve a puzzle worthy of Christie. Plenty of red herrings play against the tensions of broken romance and endangered friendships. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.