Rehearsed to death

The loquacious PJ Penwell, YA author and cohost of the popular home renovation series Domestic Partners with his sweetheart, JP Broadway, returns in the easygoing follow-up to 2022's Renovated to Death. PJ and JP live in an idyllic, fictional Detroit suburb that boasts "the seventh-highest rate of same-sex couples nationwide," where PJ (who also happens to be an unproduced playwright) is thrilled by a request from the local community theater to produce his magnum opus, Blue Tuesday. Then he encounters the arrogant Xander Sherwood Deva, who has been brought in to direct the show. When Deva turns up dead, it becomes clear that a long list of locals might have cause for the crime. Polito pads his exceedingly thin plot with some entertaining diversions, including one about introducing a second dog to the Penwell-Broadway household and another following the couple as they scope out a new renovation project for their TV series. The mystery is exceptionally simple to solve, but for readers seeking a quick read for a train journey or a bedside book on vacation, this fits the bill. (May)

Serious actors and drag queens compete for space in an amusing whodunit. JP Broadway and Peter Penwell have scored a hit with Domestic Partners, their HGTV show, which shows them renovating the house they bought in the fictional Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods. But Pete has a bad feeling about his new play, which is about to be produced by the Royal Heights Players. The original director, Vicky Marshall, has been pushed aside by Xander Sherwood Deva, a hotshot who has the connections to get Blue Tuesday a New York opening. Unfortunately, Xander turns out to be an autocratic, mean-spirited, demanding fashionista who's no fun to work with. A series of rocky auditions eventually leads to a cast that includes Pete and JP's next-door neighbor Bob Kravitz, who's driven to quit by Xander's insistence that he's gay though he says he's not. Xander refuses to let Vicky's protégé Rusty Doyle--whose most recent performances have been at Drag Queen Queeraoke--even audition, and once rehearsals start, he drives everyone crazy with his petty demands and harsh criticisms. So it's no great surprise when Hunter Bellamy, Xander's latest lover, finds him dead in the theater. It looks like his extra-long scarf was caught in some fan blades and accidentally strangled him, but Pete's not convinced because he knows there's a long list of people, himself included, who won't miss the abrasive director. Pete writes mysteries, JP's played a cop, and they've already solved one murder, so in a last-minute attempt to save the play, they start looking at all the people who may have done the deed. Just the thing for those who love TV renovation shows. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.