Rehearsed to Death: A Domestic Partners in Crime Mystery

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)