Warm, winsome and weight-bedeviled Savannah Reid, proprietor of the Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency in coastal San Carmelita, Calif., goes undercover as a plus-size fashion model in McKevett's winning ninth outing, a step up from last year's family-angst-laden Death by Chocolate
. When full-figured model Cait Connor turns up dead in her bathroom, stifled in a "vapor-impermeable suit," her bereaved husband blames an overly rigorous exercise routine and the manufacturer of Slenda Flakes, the cereal Cait had been hired to promote—if she could lose 30 pounds in 60 days. But after the death of another plus-size model working for the same cereal company, struck by a hit-and-run driver while she's on an early morning jog, it's clear murder's afoot. Posing as a model, Savannah gets on the killer's trail, aided by police detective Dirk Coulter and the computer expertise of her bright young assistant, Tammy Hart. The arrival from Georgia of a demanding sister of Savannah's, who suddenly moves in to follow up an Internet romance, complicates the sleuthing without slowing the plot. Food lore, a good puzzle, an exciting climax and cats with their therapeutic purring all add to the fun. (Jan. 6)
FYI:
G.A. McKevett is the pseudonym of Sonja Massie, author of
Daughter of Ireland (2000) and other romance novels.
