Brigadoom! by Susan Goodwill: This book was hilarious, and a good mystery to boot. Just ignore the Evanovich echoes. (I just had to look up that phrase, "to boot," which seems to make no sense. I found: "This term has nothing to do with footwear. The 'boot' is thought to be a derivative of the earlier 'bat' meaning 'good or useful'. This is also the root of the word 'better'." on this highly useful site (if you're a big English nerd). Moving on...
Kate London is sent to anger management class after hitting her cheating fiance, Mayor Ronnie Balfours, (in a port-a-john) with a golf cart. Meanwhile, she has a month to get the family legacy, a crumbling Egyptian theater (newly condemned by an angry mayor), in shape for a production of Brigadoon her crazy Aunt Kitty is putting on. When Mayor Ronnie turns up dead in Kate's car, she's dragged into a mystery involving vandalism of the Egyptian, dumpster diving, real estate intrigue, and a fellow anger management student. Susan Goodwill is really funny, the writing is snappy, and the mystery well-plotted. If Aunt Kitty and her friend Velma remind you a bit of Grandma Mazur and Edna, well, that's okay. There are echoes of Plum, to be sure, but the story is original, and the characters well-developed. (Dr. Al the pissed-off anger management teacher is a gem!) I had fun reading this, and I recommend it to anyone fond of a humor/mystery combo.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Sounds like something different -- a mysterious comedy. Maybe I'll check it out.
Lol, Have you ever read Agnes and the Hitman? She had to take anger management classes because she hit her cheating fiance with a frying pan. I'll have to see if my library has this.
I just tried to request the book from the Minneapolis Library and they don't have Susan Goodwill or the book listed! I guess it's time to go book shopping.
Post a Comment