Shelley CostaRezensionen

Shelley Costa’s mystery stories have all proven to be delightful and interesting. NO MISTAKING DEATH may be the start of a new series, but her writing and wit continue.
Private investigator Marian Warner returned to Carthage, Ohio, to help her half-sister, Joan Fleck, get what possibly the first Jesuit Mission House in what was to become Ohio designated a National Historic Landmark site.
Joan is Director of the Artifacts Authorization Agency based in Manhattan.
Time is running short because a construction company wants to create a complex on the property and is in the process of demolishing the derelict building on the site.
Words and lawsuits fly in as does murder.
In addition to the basic plot, Shelley Costa provides a lot of character building as she lays the groundwork for this series. She also has a lot of subtle, and sometimes no so subtle humor:
“Where the Department of Commerce stored some old metal desks and Joan Fleck.”
“Carthage toiled up there somewhere, hundreds of feet overhead roads, houses, utility lines, smokestacks, feuds.”
“She arched her back, checking to see whether she was still a vertebrate.”
And some observations:
“So broad and square and balanced, like the Chinese character for man.” (I actually had to look this up. She’s right!”)
“‘That’s something I don’t want to find out.’ Sometimes–she realized as she tried to read his face–the truth is the wrong answer.”“
“Get out the bucket, get out the mop. Murder is as good a time as any to do the kitchen floor.”
NO MISTAKING DEATH offers an excellent read as well as anticipation for future books.

'Practical Sins for Cold Climates' is not the typical Henery Press adorable cozy mystery, yet I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The story is very well written, uncomfortable, haunting at times, and, eventually, honest.

Valjean Cameron, the leading lady of the book, is a senior editor at a New York City based publishing company. Due to her ‘complicated’ relationship with her boss, she is sent to a small settlement on a remote lake in Canada to sign a best-selling author. Being a city girl through and through, she is immediately terrorized by what is considered everyday life to the residents. She encounters misery after hardship after misery, and her reactions are hilarious.

I felt like Val was fighting with her own vision of herself. She starts off timid, and she stubbornly wants to appear self-reliant. As the book progressed, she realizes that accepting herself and doing what she really feels is right, though difficult, is important and worth doing. This book reads as longer than typical cozies because it needs to, for honest character evolution. The mystery has a very satisfying conclusion.

I am a big fan of the Henery Press cozies, and I am happy to see that they are broadening their scope, while maintaining a high level of quality. This is the first book I have read by Shelley Costa, and I am very impressed. Also, I am especially interested in any further books featuring Valjean.

**eARC netgalley**

Honestly, by the time I got around to trying to write a review of this (which would be just now), I had to stop for a minute. I couldn't remember a thing. It all came back after a second; there was the instant I thought "I only gave this three stars?", followed closely by the one in which I thought "Oh, right. Yes. Three."

It had its moments. I liked the main character, Valjean Cameron. I liked her friend Adrian (despite the fact that I kept confusing her with her brother Anthony; "Adrian" is usually the masculine spelling) and her aunt Greta, and the sharp young girl she encounters in pursuing answers. I wasn't as enamored with Anthony Bale, perhaps because my entire Catholic background rose up in protest of his choice of lifestyle and choice of cover story.

That was actually a major drawback to the book for me. I found it repulsive that a man who might at any time be called upon to perform acts upon which any church would frown, and who apparently has (or has had) a string of bed-warmers, who openly states his agnosticism (if not atheism) – that such a man would think it was just fine to put on the robe of even a lay brother and pretend to be a man trying to be … good. I would think the hypocrisy would be hard for an intelligent man to live with, but apparently in this case it is not. It was, however, hard to read about, and I was completely unwilling to accept Bale as Val's new love interest.

There are all kinds of comparisons to Dan Brown's exercises in earnest silliness, to the point that I'm a little shocked I would request this. And, while it's better written to a degree that is so large as to be almost immeasurable, there is an awful lot of common ground between That Book Which Shall Remain Nameless and this one. A secret Catholic society looking to change the world is just as silly when I like the main character and don't cringe at most of the writing as when I want to shoot the main character in the face and most of the writing makes me whimper softly.

(It may be the fault of the ARC, but there were a handful of times when the writing did make me whimper, just a little – "Turning to face Bale, her sweater tugged across her breast", for example. Maybe these things will be fixed.)

Also … why, exactly, does a member of a secret society (let me repeat: SECRET) get a tattoo of said society's symbol above his collarbone? Not inside his elbow, or under one breast, or on the back of his knee or someplace else most people would never see it – nope: in a place where it would often show above his neckline.

So – it's better than That Other Book – but that's not a difficult achievement, after all. It falls somewhere in between it and The Eight – on the lower end of the scale, unfortunately. Disappointing.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

After the murder of her best friend, Val is throw into a mystery.....or three. First, who killed Adrian and why? Second, why would someone forge a satire of a Christian document and where is the original? Third, who killed a young boy at the monastery and what did he know?
With the help of her Aunt Greta and Adrian's brother Antony, they work to solve these mysteries. Val is smart, funny, and down to earth. Very likable as a lead character. All players in the tale are well developed and come to life on the pages.
Shelley Costa is and excellent writer. The story is well thought out and executed. There were a few typos in my version, but since it was an advanced copy that is expected. But that is the only reason this gets 4 stars instead of 5.
I didn't read the first in this series, but I intend to. I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.

Well, for a book for which I spent the first third thinking 'what the hell?' this one ended up being pretty good really.

Val is an editor tasked with getting a reclusive author in the northern lakes of Canada to sign with her for his next (presumably) blockbuster book. Her arrival in the small town coincides with issues between miners, environmentalists, loggers and tourists coming to a head and the atmosphere is... combustible. Her guide's wife's death 2 years previously worries Val too because her author looks like an awful good suspect for the murder...

The first obstacle, and really, the only obstacle to overcome in the beginning of this book is the writing. The style is terse and while it isn't fragmented, it leaves the reader with fragmented images and bits of information. There are zero information dumps here; either of the showing or telling sort. And the writing does nothing to put you into the MC's head and then there are the alternate POV's that aren't always identified so you might not even know who's head you're in.

I could see how this book might have a high DNF rate.

But there is something engaging about it from the first, I just can't quite put my finger on what it is. But by about halfway I was totally gripped by the book and didn't want to put it down. Either I got used to the writing or Costa found a better flow. The author might not want you in her character's head, but she definitely wants you in the middle of the Northern Canadian lakes and forests; at one point I could almost smell the muck.

There's a romance brewing but it's a super-sonically slow one as Val is not a well-adjusted personality (although she is angst free, which is a nice change) and neither really is her romantic interest. The author has me very intrigued and eager to see how she brings these two forward.

The mystery ending was really, really good. I didn't see that coming and it was deliciously plotted.

I'm still not sure about the style, but I'm definitely in for the next book to see where Val goes from here.

The second book in the Val Cameron mystery series published by Henery Press, I picked this off my TBR pile without reading the back cover blurb. So it's a heck of a coincidence that my last two non-fiction reads have covered religious secret societies and Christian relics, and A Killer's Guide to Good Works is the story about... wait for it... secret religious societies and Christian relics!

There are strong shades of Da Vinci Code here and while it's marketed as a cozy, I'd definitely split hairs and call it much more a traditional mystery. There's really nothing at all light here; it's not hard-boiled but it is in many ways cold and definitely heartbreaking. What makes it readable without pulling the reader under is the MC's lack of wallowing, even when wallowing is the reasonable thing to do. There's not much more I can imagine that's as devastating as what happens to Val, but she keeps putting one foot in front of the other; not out of bravery, but because there's just nothing else she can do. The threads of her life come together as only the most fantastical fiction can, but I don't care: it makes for a ripper of a story.

My only complaint and the loss of that 5th star is a combination of writing style and editing errors. Oddly the both work together so sometimes it's hard to say when something is a style choice or an editing error but there were at least a few critical words dropped from sentences and one spot where the same sentence is repeated, both before and after a quote. Sloppy - really sloppy, and especially disappointing from Henery Press because I've always found their editing excellent. The author writes in third person, but has a unique narrative style that won't suit everyone - some might find it choppy or discordant. It took me awhile both in the first book and this one to find its rhythm, but once I did, I enjoyed it.

I hope there's a third book; I can't wait to see what she does next.

I had not read the first book in this series, but A Killer’s Guide to Good Works is definitely a stand- alone book, requiring no reading of the other book in the series. In this book, Val, an editor at a publishing house, gets a call from her oldest and best friend, Adrian Bale, to come over to her office immediately to see something unusual that she has brought back from her just-returned trip to England. Val hurries over to her friend’s office, but arrives only to find Adrian just murdered. Through her grief, Adrian teams up with her Adrian’s brother, Anthony, a monk who lives in England, to get to the bottom of Adrian’s murder. Val has never been or wanted to be close or spent any time with Anthony, mostly because he is religious figure. Val, who is not very religious and does not want to become so, feels too uncomfortable with people such as Anthony. However, as the story progresses, Val finds Anthony is not at all the type person she expected. The pair finds that Adrian’s death, and that of another young monk in Anthony’s abbey, are related to a small, unknown cult. Behind it all is this strange cult, who were after the duo for what they knew and possibly possessed. To complicate matters, Val has begun representing a new author and his book. Val finds this particular job unappealing. However, even this task ties in nicely with the plot of the story.

The story is interesting enough. However, I found that the author did not really explain the cult, which is central to the story theme/plot, well. I found myself re-reading sections to see if I had missed something about this cult, their beliefs and actions because, to be honest, I was lost a lot of the time. In addition, I did not find the character development of the cult members, in particular, the main ones who played important roles in the story, as well done as they could/should have been or as well done as other leading characters in the story. The ending was a little bit of a surprise to me, mostly because, though there were subtle hints about what was going on, they were very subtle--too much so for me to pick up on them. I enjoyed Val’s character and the neat way she went about searching for a solution to the mystery surrounding her friend’s death. She and Adrian’s bother Anthony complimented each other well—and there was also a hint of chemistry between them as well as the potential for a possible future relationship. I did find it interesting how the author portrayed Anthony, the monk, as I never had read/met anyone who was the type monk Anthony was. I guess I just figured all monks were more or less alike (expect for their different orders with specific rules, missions, etc.). As I said, I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I have others. Because I thought a lot was left out. If a reader enjoys books such as Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code, he/she will probably enjoy this one. However, having said that, since Brown’s book became such a hit, there have been are almost too many books written in this vein, so they may be no longer quite as unique or appealing. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

Val Cameron, New York book editor, receives a call one morning from her best friend Adrian Bale, saying she has something exciting to show Val - something she inadvertently picked up on a recent visit to England. But when Val is able to make it over to Adrian's place of work, she finds the area taped off by the police. It isn't long before she discovers that Adrian is dead, shot shortly after making her call to Val. Stunned, she can't figure out who would want to kill Adrian and why.

Soon Adrian's brother Antony arrives in the United States, and Val is reluctant to meet with him. Antony is a monk who lives in England, and Val's not particularly religious, so she's been able to avoid meeting him so far, but no more. She is, however, surprised to find he's nothing at all like what she thought he might be, and finds herself spending time with him, not only because of Adrian, but because there's been another murder in England, one that could possibly be connected to Adrian's 'stowaway.'

Val's also dealing with a new writer, James Killian, who has a handsome face and charming style, but has a book she'd rather not publish; however, this too is an unavoidable situation, and although physically drawn to him, she manages to keep her feelings in check.

Then there's her Aunt Greta, who works for the Artifact Authentication Agency, and has asked her help with an ancient artifact, and it's not long before Val begins to suspect that the situations she's been thrust into are all connected in some way, and the killer might just have her as the next target...

While for the most part I enjoyed reading the book, I have mixed feelings about it. This is the second book in the series (the first being Practical Sins for Cold Climates). None of the characters - except Val (and Ivy) - are carried over into this book, which seemed odd. This means that if you've invested any time in getting to know and/or like any of the characters from book one, you're out of luck. For my part, I believe that in a series there should be more than one person carried from one book to the next, or it becomes "The Adventures of..."

I also thought there was just too much unnecessary detail. There was so much written about the satire, the crown, etc., for so many pages it just got tedious and slogged down the book. (It's like reading a Dan Brown book - if you like his works, you will probably like this). Yet we never learn much about the cult or the high council, or given any reasons as to why anyone would be drawn into it. I wasn't really drawn to Greta; in fact, there was nothing to be drawn to. She didn't have much of a personality and there wasn't anything about her that would make me want to spend time with her. I did, however, enjoy the character of Tali, who was wise beyond her years.

Any of this notwithstanding, the book was well-written with the plot quite nicely thought out, giving the reader a story that combines fact with fiction, and the choice to believe if anything they have read has the possibility of being the truth. I usually follow the rule of three, wherein I will read three books in a series before passing judgment, so hopefully the next one will make it all come together. Recommended.

http://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-killer-guide-to-good-works-val.html

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal

So opens A KILLERS GUIDE TO GOOD WORKS by Shelley Costa.
The prologue, dated Veracruz 1595, talks of a satire about the Inquisition written by a Franciscan friar and hidden away to protect both it and himself.
As the main story begins, Val Cameron’s best friend, book editor Adrian Bale, invites her to see a priceless funerary urn that she was bringing back to New York from a visit to see her brother Anthony, a Carmelite monk, in England. Before Val arrives, Adrian has been killed and the urn has disappeared.
A bit of inquiry leads her to learn that a young monk at the abbey where Anthony lives was also murdered. While Val tries to find out why Adrian was killed and if the two murders are related, her apartment in ransacked. She realizes she is also a potential victim. But she has no idea what they think she had that was reason enough to kill.
In addition to the hidden manuscript, the book also highlights an important relic from the time of the death of Jesus. Instead of sharing it with the public, people have kept it hidden in for their own enjoyment over the centuries. The story notes how that was easily done because to safeguard genuine relics, the Essenes “flooded the market with several duplicates of each of the holy relics and sold them to the powerful and wealthy faithful at the dawn of what became the Catholic Church.”
Shelley Costa’s book is well-written and flows smoothly. There are a few references to the first book in the series, PRACTICAL SINS FOR COLD CLIMATES. I’m looking forward to reading the next one as Val’s life continues to change with her new experiences and knowledge.
Interesting ideas to ponder:
“Mostly, in this life, boys get in over their heads with secrets. Either because they can’t keep them, or they keep the wrong ones–or the secrets sadly have something to do with adults.”
“Trust is the only thing in life that shatters completely. And irreparably.”
I received an uncorrected proof from the author.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed it. I was expecting something a lot lighter, but it was a well written read with good characters and a suspenseful storyline. Recommended read.

Practical Sins for Cold Climates by Shelley Costa is the first book in the Val Cameron Mystery series. Val Cameron has been sent to Lake Wendaban, Ontario Canada to get the reclusive Charles Cable to agree to let Schlesinger Publishing publish his latest book. Val does not like remote wilderness, but she is not given a choice (she had a little bit of trouble with her last client). Her boss, Peter Hathaway (a very odd duck with a shaved head and pajama like clothing) insists that she go (her job is on the line). It sounds like an easy job, but if it sounds that easy it will not be! Val tries to get Charles at a town meeting and ends up in the middle of a brawl. Val gets knocked out and her contract destroyed. There is unrest in the town (over development).

Wade Decker’s wife, Leslie was murdered two years previously. The case has yet to be solved. There is a hint that Charles might have killed her. Val wants to make sure to do her “due diligence” with this client (unlike her last one) before she gets him to sign the contract. Will Val be able to find the killer, clear Charles’ name, and get her contract signed? You will have to read Practical Sins for Cold Climates to find out (such a long title).

Practical Sins for Cold Climates is very confusing at beginning (it takes a while to start figuring things out) and the writing does not help. Stilted (and awkward) is the word that comes to mind regarding this author’s writing style. The book does not flow well. The book jumps around (one minute with Val, then another character, then it jumps again). It is like Practical Sins for Cold Climates tried to be a combination suspense novel and cozy mystery, but it did not succeed. Practical Sins for Cold Climates was just not an enjoyable book to read. The main character was just not someone I liked (Val), and we had too much internal dialogue (Val seems to be thinking about her lovely apartment in New York, Peter and their odd love life (yes, she was sleeping with the boss), her work, the secretary who does not like to work and the boss pays for her yoga, Peter’s odd lover (Peter is sleeping with Val and this woman) with her bald head and an oddly placed braid). Too much was shoved into one book. I give Practical Sins for Cold Climates 1 out of 5 stars. I’m sorry, but I just did not like Practical Sins for Cold Climates.

I received a complimentary copy of Practical Sins for Cold Climates from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always wonder why anyone puts lots of comments by critics in the overview blurb of a book, stating over and over how good the book is. That is how this book’s blurb reads. Get to the overview already! I got this book to read and review through NetGalley a few weeks ago. I began the book, with no preconceived ideas about it, the main character or the setting. I soon found myself wondering where the author was going. The book starts slowly. Val Cameron, a Senior Editor with a New York publishing company, is sent to the Canadian wilds to get a book contract signed by a reclusive author. Val is not a backwoods sort of girl and has some difficulty adjusting to this environs. However, she muddles through. At the outset she meets a pilot, Wade Decker, who uses his plane to take her into the wilds. Decker, whose wife was killed a couple of years back and whose death remains a mystery, becomes an integral part of the story. Val seeks her reclusive author, out only to find he is a likely suspect in this murder. Thus, Val must clear him before completing her mission. Can she do this and also get the contract signed? Practical Sins for Cold Climates provides the answer.

The story is interesting and presents a good picture of this remote area and life, but it meanders along in a somewhat confusing manner. I had difficulty getting into this book. It jumps around a lot. There is a lot of internal dialogue on the part of Val. The action is slow to get started, though, once going, does move along. I agree with one reviewer that the author tried to make this a cozy mystery cum suspense novel, and put just a bit too much effort into it. The setting is interesting—I had never really read much and know little about the Canadian Northwoods or its residents. I figured they were a tight, but somewhat eccentric bunch, which they are. However, though interesting to read about this area as the author wove the storyline through it, I just had difficulty getting into and staying with this book. This book would appeal to someone looking for something written with this setting or someone trying to find a new, different author who enjoys cozy mysteries and suspense novels, though, in my opinion, the author this does not do either of these as well as she could have.

Val Cameron was trying to advance her career in literary publishing. When her boss,
Peter Hathaway, sent her to northern Ontario to get an author to sign a contract. She wasn’t happy about the assignment but felt she had to go. A previous contract with an author with what turned out to be a major skeleton in the closet made it imperative to get this one done. The company really needed the money. And, after all, it would only be a quick fly in-fly out trip.
A New Yorker through and through, she didn’t exactly prepare for the different environment and her designer shoes and clothes showed what she expected to happen, not what actually happened.
The town was very isolated in a beautiful area. She quickly found the people she needed to reach the author, Charlie Cable, but learned that he came in only once a month to get his mail but had just left. She went to get settled into Hathaway’s cottage then went to find someone to help her reach Cable at his home. She found Wade Decker, a handsome, rugged pilot and outdoorsman. Decker had a history: His wife’s body had been found on the rocks outside their home two years earlier. There were rumors that she had been killed and that she had committed suicide. Decker refused to talk about it.
Leslie Selkirk Decker, it turned out, was a beautiful woman who was very much disliked by almost everyone. The camp that her family owned for many years had been failing and there was interest in buying the land for development. That made her a possible target for several people.
Her inquiries led to Cable being the killer, but if he was, what would that mean both if he signed the contract and if he didn’t?
The book is well-written with well developed characters, subtle humor, and sharp observation: For example, for her first ride in a floatplane “Val threw on her sunglasses so he couldn’t tell her eyes were squeezed shut, and she concentrated on not stiffening herself into a complete plank....” I did not expect the ending.
Interesting comments:
“No matter where you went on the planet...someone would be having a meeting.”
“On the whole, pain was a damn sight better than fear.”
“Whenever she thought she was being winsome the average male still needed a secret decoder ring.”
This is the first of a three-book series. I’m looking forward to reading more about Val’s adventures.

You know from the opening paragraph in BASIL INSTINCT that life is going to get complicated for Eve Angelotta, head chef at Miracolo. “I uttered those fateful words: ‘How bad can it be?...[T]he universe hears those words as a challenge.’”
A worthy follow up to YOU CANNOLI DIE ONCE, BASIL INSTINCT includes many of the same characters, primarily Eve, her octogenarian nonna Maria Pia who owns Miracol, her cousin Landon and other personnel associated with the restaurant.
The story begins when Maria Pia, Eve’s nonna receives an invitation to join The Society of Belfiere–“honoring the gustatory delights of life and death”, a 200-year-old secret society of top female chefs whose logo displays three sharp knives, a red sash, and the Latin words Numquam Nimis Multi Cultri. Before being initiated, Maria Pia must get a tattoo on her wrist, make a traditional gown for herself and provide a gourmet meal for fifty guests before showing up, alone, at the induction ceremony location. Omertà must be observed.
While Maria Pia is ecstatic about the invitation, Eve and Landon are concerned. They have never heard of Belfiere and information about it is exceedingly scarce. They are finally able to find one comment by someone who attended one of their meals at which someone was poisoned but there was no story about it in the media.
Meanwhile, Eve was roped into teaching a cooking course at a technical school. Four of the eight class members turn out to be delinquents who, she luckily discovers before distributing equipment, would really like to work with knives. One of the other students is very proficient in the kitchen. She hires her and another one to help cook and serve for the Belfiere dinner at Miracolo that Friday night.
But Eve finds a body in the entryway of the restaurant when she arrives at work in the morning. The person seems to have had a heart attack. Not wanting to let anything interfere with the dinner, Eve and Landon hide the body, then have to move it. And then the games begin.
Well-written and fast paced, the laughs begin in the first paragraph and keep on coming. “Nonna” is defined as “Annoying grandmother.” The wit sneaks up on you. At one point she mentions the band preparing by trying to find an A they can agree on. After writing about singing, Costa has four short lines of prose. I found that I was trying to create a melody for them. While she doesn’t provide an exact recipe for Pestosicles, the thought of them had me rolling my eyes. There is an interesting recipe at the end, though.
There are a lot of sentence fragments which do work since they seem to be part of Eve’s thought process. However, there are a few too many references to YOU CANNOLI DIE ONCE which don’t really help move the plot along.
I’m looking forward to book three in the series.

This series is shaping up to be a really funny and one of my favorite series currently around. I already fell in love with Maria and Eve but I have fallen for them more with this book. Also, another person that I like is Eve's cousin, Landon. I can't remember if he was in the first book but he is making sure he stands in the spotlight this time.

When Eve and Landon found the dead body of their sous chef and hide it, I could not help but laugh. Then when Eve showed the body to her boyfriend, Joe, it almost was a Weekend at Bernie's moment. I just realized what Eve and Joe remind me of. They are kind of like Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Eve just moves to the beat of her own drum and sometimes finds herself in over her head. Luckily for her Joe is around to get her out of the predicament that she finds herself in. Which always makes for laughs. I really liked the mystery in this book and the idea of a secret chef cooking society that includes members getting an exclusive tattoo. Which Eve's grandmother, Maria did get. I can't tell you what it is or I might have to kill you. You will just have to get a copy of this book for yourself to learn what it is. You will not be disappointed.

Eve Angelotta was a dancer who after an injury returned to her hometown to work at the family restaurant with her somewhat forceful grandmother (Nonna). However, when Eve discovers a body (later identified as her Nonna's boyfriend) in the restaurant's kitchen and all signs point to Nonna as the murderer, Eve has to take charge and save Nonna and the family business.

This was a fun read with the Italian flavor both in food and family!½

I’ve read many mysteries with women who step out of their usual roles to try to solve a murder. I’ve read many with quirky characters. I rarely read one that makes me laugh out loud. YOU CANNOLI DIE ONCE is the rare one that is also genuinely funny.
Eve Angelotta was a Broadway dancer who fell off the stage during Step in Time in “Mary Poppins” and broke her leg in two places. While she still loves dancing, she returned to her Quaker Hills Pennsylvania home to become the chef of her grandmother’s Italian restaurant, Miracolo. Being from Northern Italy, her grandmother, Maria Pia, would not allow Eve to serve cannoli. (Eve’s recipe is at the end of the book.)
One morning, she opened up to begin preparing for the day’s crowd and discovered a body on the kitchen floor. She did not know the victim but rather quickly the police determined he was Arlen Mather, a man her still-beautiful 76-year-old grandmother had been seeing. Maria Pia became the main suspect. Though she (“not the kind of grandmother who makes brownies and sells crap on eBay) could be difficult, no one believed would ever kill someone. Eve enlisted other staff members as well as a couple outside people to help find the killer.
Robberies in the neighborhood is a subplot.
There are some red herrings and more than one character is not who people think he/she is leading to some genuine surprises.
Shelley Costa presents a lively vision of life in Miracolo complete with the daily musical entertainment and some of the other people and businesses (she calls their main competitor, a restaurant offering a French menu as Full of Crêpe). There were a lot of characters, each playing a necessary part in the story but not as fully developed as they might be in future stories. Costa presents a description of four of the main characters and their part in the story at the very beginning of the book.
The book contains some interesting observations, wit, and wordplay: During one of Maria Pia’s convoluted conversations, Eve realizes “I have a full understanding of the Roman Empire: they finally heard themselves.” When Eva called one of her suppliers, the woman responded, “Goody gumdrops.” “Some people might think that was sarcasm. I, on the other hand, knew it was.”
YOU CANNOLI DIE ONCE was a very entertaining twist on a frequent theme.
P.S. I have seen Sutton Foster in Anything Goes and both she and the closing number of Act I are amazing.