Susan Goodwill

Kate London's life just got very complicated. Her eccentric aunt announces they'll be reopening the old Egyptian theater with a production of Brigadoon in one month, not the three months she'd anticipated. And the Egyptian needs a lot of work--more, now that vandals have targeted it.

Then she discovers her fiance, Mayor Ronnie Balfours, cheating on her, and reacts in a perfectly rational way... or rather, she reacts the way we'd all like to react: she attacks him with a golf cart.

Adding anger show more management classes to her already busy schedule seemed like a lot... until the dead bodies started showing up, including Mayor Ronnie's in the trunk of her car. And being busy suddenly doesn't seem so bad, now that she's a murder suspect.

It doesn't help that the sheriff is an ex-lover, or that they still strike sparks off each other.

And did I mention the Naked Bandit?

Brigadoom is a fast-paced, fun story full of humor, twists and turns, unusual characters, emotion, and a touch of romance. I'm looking forward to the next Kate London mystery. show less

Kate London is already worried about money - her amateur theatre group, the Mudd Lake Players, is struggling to survive - and the last thing she needs is to be robbed while standing in line at the bank. To add insult to injury- she was robbed by an octogenarian in a bathrobe wielding a banana as the holdup weapon. Kate and her eccentric Aunt Kitty are bound and determined to catch Walter, but soon find themselves involved with murder, the Treasury Department, a biker gang, and even a repo show more man.

"Little Shop of Murders" is a humorous cozy mystery that is long on humor and short on plot. The book is filled with eccentric characters - Kate, her ex-movie star aunt, Walter, a cop named Elvis-Pressley, a repo man and many more. There is also plenty of action - murder, bank robberies, car chases, explosions, and even the play "Little Shop of Horrors." There are even two love interests for Kate. All of this sounds, and should have been, interesting but it never quite worked for me. The book is very funny but the humor is over the top at times and kept me from ever really being interested in the murder plotline. Many of the characters seemed thrown into the book just for the sake of humor. The murder mystery does have a few good moments but often gets lost in the humorous bits. There are plenty of suspects but I found the identity of the murderer to be a bit of a copout. There are a lot of things happening in the book (the play, the bank robbery, a sausage festival, biker's gangs) and it was hard keeping characters straight in my mind.

"Little Shop of Murders" is a funny but lightweight cozy mystery. show less