No Gun Intended

November 2, 2015
Burke’s zany sequel to 2013’s Jump the Gun takes screwball rookie sleuth Annabelle “Bea” Starkey from New York City to Portland, Ore., to visit her parents. Unfortunately, at the airport baggage claim, somebody walks off with Bea’s backpack, and Bea goes home with her foul-mouthed mom and sanguine dad and an identical-looking backpack containing a gun—which turns out to be a murder weapon. The plot thickens when a young woman phones, claiming she has Bea’s backpack, wants to meet, and is quickly dispatched into a coma by a mysterious mugger. Boyfriend and Asta Investigations partner Mickey Paxton, who’s working a case back in New York, can’t get away to help out, so she’s on her own. With Bea’s quips, Mom Starkey’s expletives, crazy plot twists, red herrings, and copious movie references, this is one mad, mad, mad, mad mystery. Agent: Anna Olswanger, Liza Dawson Associates.

November 1, 2015
Burke continues her genre-bending saga of a movie-crazed malaprop who yearns to be a private eye. Now that her boyfriend Mickey Paxton's at home in New York keeping an eye on Bonkers, her cat, Annabelle Starkey (Jump the Gun, 2013) feels safe visiting her parents, who just moved to Portland from Palo Alto. Safe, that is, until she discovers that someone on the plane took her backpack stuffed with personal items and left her holding a similar bag containing nothing but a puffy jacket and a Beretta Bobcat. A mysterious caller named Claudia sends Annabelle scurrying to the Japanese Garden in the hope of retrieving her belongings, but on her arrival she finds Claudia knocked out and her backpack nowhere in sight. Retreating to her parents' to soothe herself with a DVD of The Heat, she's promptly kidnapped, duct-taped, and thrown into a van. She escapes barely in time to have drinks and dinner with her parents' gay neighbors, Sal and Drew, who've just agreed to become the elder Starkeys' partners in Sunshine Bakery. Eventually, Mickey and Annabelle's best friend, tough-guy cop Luis Maldonado, arrives in Portland, but even he can't prevent Annabelle from getting riled up over Anne Elliot's abusive father in Persuasion. So Mickey himself, who can't resist pleas like "Kiss me again, like it's your last chance to kick the ball on second down," rushes to Annabelle's side to help her discover who took her undies, who cold-cocked Claudia, and who the hell owns the Beretta. What Annabelle would undoubtedly call a "hard-boiled cozy" is unlikely to appeal much to fans of either, unless they're really stuck on Portland.

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January 1, 2016

Annabelle Stark flies from New York City where she's busy starting a detective agency to Portland, OR, to visit her parents, who have moved there after the unsettling events that transpired in Jump the Gun. At the airport, Annabelle's backpack is mistakenly swapped for another, which contains a gun that is connected to a murder. She and her parents are stalked and harassed, and Annabelle answers the only way she can, with movie one-liners and wisecracks. VERDICT Featuring a cast of appealing characters, Burke's second series outing is an amusing choice for readers who enjoy offbeat cozies with quirky protagonists such as those penned by Jenn McKinlay or Elaine Viets.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
In her second outing (following Jump the Gun, 2013), Annabelle Starkey is looking forward to a relaxing visit with her parents in Portland, Oregon. That plan is foiled when she shows up with the wrong backpackone that has a gun in it. In spite of the fact that she and her ex-cop boyfriend just opened their own NYC detective agency, Annabelle is not a fan of firearms. Fellow PI Luis and boyfriend Mickey fly in to join Annabelle, her professor father, and her foulmouthed physician mother as they look for the plane passenger who seems to be stalking Annabelle, as well as the person who assaulted the backpack's original owner. The unlikely entourage traipses through hospitals, hotels, and pool halls on their quest. Annabelle's constant movie references can come across as contrived rather than quirky, and the mystery's resolution requires a backstory that is never explained. That being said, Annabelle's family and friends are a fun-loving bunch, and at just over 200 pages, this caper is an enjoyable diversion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)