"lighthearted satirical tale"

Their parents wasted away in record time their trust funds so the three Blackbird sisters, former socialites, struggle to live above the poverty line. Nora accepts the proposal of Mick Abruzzo; the stunner for high society is not that Mick is the son of an infamous mobster, but that a Philadelphia blue blood would agree to marry someone from Jersey.

Whereas Nora thinks her sister Emma is working the sheet trade with partners named John to bring in income, her other sibling Libby, on a hiatus from baby production, plans the social wedding of the century albeit with no money. However, Nora's biggest problem is her fiancé. Someone wants Mick dead, but though everyone else assumes it is the Blackbird Curse in full bloom as grooms die young when they wed a Blackbird woman, she believes it ties to her future in-law's family business. Of course Mick almost dying seems normal when compared to the socialite parents of the vanished Penny Devine declaring her dead before the police have had enough legal time to declare her missing. To Nora this is just another scandal in high society.

The latest Blackbird Sister mystery is a delightful lighthearted satirical tale that jabs at the pretentiousness of the upper class. The fast-paced story line leaps from one crisis to a deeper calamity as Nora cannot help herself from becoming involved in various happenings starting with stopping her two sisters, to keeping Mick alive at least until she can declare widowhood and finally learning what happened to the divine Penny. Fans of the series will thoroughly enjoy the heroine's predicaments as she tries to save society one Blackbird at a time.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted February 27, 2007

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Summary

Impoverished Philadelphia heiress Nora Blackbird has agreed to wed Mick Abruzzo, son of New Jersey's most notorious mobster, leaving the city's bluebloods in shock. Then Nora and her sisters get some ominous news—Sweet Penny Devine, ex-Hollywood starlet and daughter of the Philadelphia Devines, has mysteriously disappeared. Even stranger, her family wants her declared dead pronto. Could someone have plotted her final act? Now it's up to the Blackbird sisters to snoop among the snooty—until they uncover the truth.