cover image Killer Blonde

Killer Blonde

Laura Levine. Kensington Publishing Corporation, $22 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-7582-0162-1

In Laura Levine's Killer Blonde: A Jaine Austen Mystery, her third cozy to feature sassy freelance writer and sometime sleuth Jaine Austen (after 2003's Last Writes), Jaine agrees to ghostwrite a book of hostess tips for SueEllen Kingsley, a Beverly Hills socialite. When the abusive, self-centered SueEllen gets electrocuted in her bathtub, Jaine must do what she can to exonerate the chief suspect in the murder, the victim's endearing, chubby teenage stepdaughter. The identity of the real killer comes as an abrupt if smart surprise. Agent, Evan Marshall.