Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge

Starred review from August 6, 2018
At the start of Levine’s exemplary 16th Jaine Austen mystery (after 2017’s Death of a Bachelorette), Jaine, the freelance writer with a big appetite, agrees to house-sit a Bel Air mansion with her shoe salesman friend, Lance, during the Christmas season. When her cat, Prozac, manages to escape to the house next door, Jaine meets Scotty Parker,
a former child actor who has grown into an unlikable cheapskate with
a knack for blackmailing. On Christmas Day, Scotty is found bludgeoned with a frozen chocolate yule log, and Jaine is a suspect. Determined to prove her innocence, she does some sleuthing on her own. The long list of suspects, including the victim’s money-hungry ex-wife and a neighbor with extreme anger management issues, will keep readers guessing as Jaine attempts to identify the killer. Meanwhile, Lance creates an online dating profile for Jaine, which results in several laugh-out-loud incidents and nicely fleshes out Jaine’s character. This is a thoroughly enjoyable cozy with just the right balance of crime, humor, and holiday spirit. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.

As wisecracking Jaine Austen goes to swanky Bel Air to house sit for a wealthy woman, narrator Brittany Pressley assumes the very nature of this amateur P.I. Soon, her neighbor, Scotty Parker, the stingiest, meanest man in the city, is beaten to death. The weapon is a frozen chocolate Yule log. Pressley easily shifts her tone between Jaine's snarky thoughts and her public politeness. Through a dozen characters' unique voices, Pressley draws a vivid portrait of the rich and their double lives. She enlivens this cozy mystery considerably. V.M.G. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine