Dead on My Feet

After a stint as a weather reporter in Kansas, Nellie Bly, the narrator of Broderick’s witty debut (and no relation to the 19th-century muckraking reporter of the same name), lands a job writing obits for the Coastal Crier in upscale La Joya, Calif. Her colleague, Cilla Potter, the society columnist, arranges for Nellie to live in the guest house of Dame Cavendish (Cate to her intimates) and also known in her carefully hidden past as Catherine Carlisle, showgirl and B-movie actor. Nellie can stay rent free on the condition that she ghostwrites Cate’s sure-to-be-salacious memoir. When Milo Malovich, designer of achingly beautiful shoes coveted by the world’s wealthy, is found dead with an ivory tusk shoved into his throat, Nellie, Cilla, and feature writer Finn O’Connor team with police detective Wendy Nakamura to investigate. Then another famous and flamboyant La Joyan dies in similar fashion. Can Nellie, Cilla, and Finn beat the national news outlets to the scoop? And, more importantly, will they live to tell the tale? Brisk pacing and a cavalcade of colorful characters keep the action on a swift path to its literally wild denouement. Hopefully, Nellie will be back soon. (June)