Terror in Taffeta

Romy Nordlinger exudes pep and professionalism as the voice of wedding-consultant-turned-sleuth Kelsey McKenna. When a bridesmaid collapses during her vows and is pronounced dead, Kelsey's problems as a wedding planner for a destination wedding escalate quickly. Her challenges range from how to cure a tequila hangover to how to get the bride's sister out of a Mexican jail. Nordlinger expertly handles the transitions as Kelsey moves from explaining wedding etiquette to managing a high-maintenance mother of the bride, with hilarious asides meant for Kelsey's photographer bestie and the listener. Nordlinger excels with the mother of the bride's posh clipped cadence and makes the groom and his buddies sound believably masculine. Overall, Nordlinger takes this campy mystery to a place of anticipation that listeners will savor. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

May 30, 2016
The pseudonymous Cooper’s debut novel introduces Kelsey McKenna, a bright young San Francisco–based wedding planner, whose carefully crafted nuptial in the romantic Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende suffers a few unexpected setbacks. One of the bridesmaids is murdered, the sister of the bride is arrested for the crime, and the bride’s monstrous mother blames Kelsey for everything. The book is smart and witty, and respectable as a whodunit, but theater and television actress Nordlinger turns Kelsey’s self-deprecating narration into something even more delightful, a stand-up routine that is entertaining and often hilarious. Her version of the hapless wedding planner, in which she describes her awkward attempts at amateur detecting with a buoyant optimism, makes the misfortunes funny and charming rather than downbeat. The secondary characters, including a pleasantly snarky photographer named Brody, a couple of ill-tempered Mexican lawmen, a part-time smuggler who is almost a love interest, and the remaining wedding party, are all given distinctive voices. Yet they all sound a bit like Kelsey imitating them, which is appropriate, this being her breezy, amusing, fast-paced recollection of her first (and hopefully not last) planned wedding from hell. A Minotaur hardcover.