"fine amateur sleuth"

Ex-heiress Nora Blackbird is not having an easy time of it as she is still trying to pay the taxes on the family estate while looking for money to do so. She broke up with Michael Abruzzo, the son of a mafia don because he went back into the family business but she is pregnant and dating Richard, a crime reporter for a respectable Philadelphia newspaper. Neither her sister nor her friends know she is pregnant and she doesn't intend to tell anyone who the father is.

Although she has to avoid stress because her pregnancy is high risk, she becomes involved in the murder investigation of Zell who married the widow Fitch; when she died he inherited the estate and the money. Nora goes to the Fitch estate to meet her friend Delilah Fairweather and sees Pierpont Fitch angrily leaving the premises and nearby is Boykin Fitch, a state legislator running for the senate. Zell refused to let them in the house. Delilah is the last person to see Zell alive and she fears because she is black, the police will zero in on her as a suspect. Knowing her friend isn't guilty; she agrees to help Delilah by finding the real killer.

Once again Nancy Martin writes a serio-comic who done it featuring a protagonist who always goes from the frying pan into the fire. Not only is she investigating the many suspects who hated Zell, but she has to force herself to keep away from Michael; who might be involved in the kidnapping of the son of his family's enemies. Nora slowly realizes that all is not what it seems with Michael's activities and the police investigation. The author has written a who done it that is sassy, exciting and impossible to put down. The heroine has a charm and a vulnerability that endears her to the audience.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 18, 2006

Summary

Heiress-go-lightly Nora Blackbird and her two sisters—desperate housewife and nudist-yoga enthusiast Libby and fiercely independent Emma—are back in this rollicking mystery about a sports bar with hot wings and hotter waitresses, explosive political secrets, former rock stars, a dangerous fame-and-fortune-hungry aristo-brat, and, of course, a case of blue-blooded murder that only Nora can solve.