February Fever

December 1, 2014
Librarian/freelance reporter/budding private eye/corpse-finder Mira James is at it again. Mira's boyfriend, Johnny, has announced that he's leaving for four months to do an environmental science internship in Portland, Oregon. She's depressed until her octogenarian buddy Mrs. Berns insists that she and Mira travel to Portland for a private investigators' conference and finds the acrophobic Mira an alternate way to travel. A special Valentine Train is heading that way, so Mira, Mrs. Berns, and their laid-back pothead friend, Jed Heitke, climb aboard. As Jed points out, at least she won't find another body in tiny Battle Lake, Minnesota, as she has every month since she moved there. Instead, she finds a body on the train. Across from Mira and Mrs. Bern's tiny sleeping compartment is a family whose young daughter, Aimee, reminds Mira of her childhood best friend, a girl who was kidnapped before Mira's eyes and never found. So when the mother is found poisoned and her husband and daughter vanish, Mira is determined to find Aimee. Terry Downs, another private eye, is already on the train, and before it's allowed to leave, still another, TV star Doghn Attenborough, shows up looking for publicity. The conductor asks the three of them to investigate. As Mira snoops around, she convinces herself the murderer is still aboard and decides that only Mrs. Berns and Jed can be trusted. When the train gets stuck in a violent snowstorm, hysteria sweeps the passengers, making the investigation even more difficult. The best outing yet for Mira (January Thaw, 2014, etc.). There's still a surfeit of eccentric characters, but the mystery keeps you guessing and sets up the sequel nicely.

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December 1, 2014

Librarian, reporter, and PI-in-training Mira James, along with her octogenarian sidekick Mrs. Berns, heads to Portland, OR, to attend the Private Investigator Conference. Mrs. Berns booked their excursion on the "Valentine Train" route, a trip for singles to meet and mingle, and they're just beginning to enjoy themselves when someone is murdered in this tenth series title (following January Thaw).

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2015
After Mira James' hunky boyfriend, Johnny, leaves Battle Lake, Minnesota, for Portland, Oregon, her quirky but wise octogenarian sidekick, Mrs. Berns, decides Mira should be there with him. Since Mira has a deathly fear of flying, Mrs. Berns secretly buys the two of them railway tickets to a PI conference that happens to be in Portland. True to Mrs. Berns' eccentric nature, the train is no ordinary one. It's a Valentine special, a Love Boat on the rails, where singles can meet and mingle. When passengers start disappearing and dying, rumors of a serial killer on board fill the air, and the flirty atmosphere turns to mass paranoia. To make matters worse, a blizzard has dumped a huge amount of snow, and the train is stopped dead in its tracks. In her latest mystery, Lourey skillfully mixes humor and suspense, but there's a darker edge here than in most of her other stories. Still, the characters are wonderful and wacky, and the mile-a-minute pace never falters. Another excellent addition to Lourey's very entertaining Murder-by-Month Mystery series (December Dread, 2012; January Thaw, 2013).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)