Well-Heeled: An Emily’s Place Mystery

The nicely arch tone of Siegel’s worthy sequel to 2010’s Goodie One Shoes is established at the opening (“Does the Angel of Death exist? And if so, does He wear shoes?”). Emily, a former English teacher who runs a discount shoe store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has acquired a stock of Italian black leather shoes made by Periggi & Sons from a suspect source. After a customer, Sophia Sarfatti, complains about the fit of a pair of these shoes, Emily finds diamonds hidden in one of the heels. That discovery casts her view of another customer’s desire to buy her full stock of Periggi shoes in a different light, and her suspicion that the customer knows about the gems is enhanced after she finds Sophia dead in the woman’s apartment. Emily doubts that the death was natural and persuades both her estranged husband, referred to as Larry the Loser, and her friend on the NYPD, Murphy the Cop, to help her investigate, as the violence escalates. Admirers of Kinky Friedman’s comic mayhem should be pleased. [em](BookLife) [/em]