I Can't Make You Love Me, but I Can Make You Leave

January 3, 2011
In chapter one of the pseudonymous Cash's sidesplitting seventh Domestic Equalizers mystery (after 2010's Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue), the tour bus carrying flame-haired Darla Denman, the former "Queen of Country Music," and her entourage—including her ex-husband and still faithful manager, Big Bob Denman, and Roxie Jo, Big Bob's ambitious, much younger wife and Darla's opening act—breaks down outside Salt Lick, Tex. After hiring a couple of unlikely backup singers—beauticians, and down-home investigators Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin—Darla and company finally reach Midland for a benefit concert. When Roxie Jo is stabbed to death with a nail file in her dressing room, Darla confesses to the crime. Sure that Darla is innocent, Debbie Sue and Edwina set out to clear their favorite singer's name. Cash (sisters Pam Cumbie and Jeffery McClanahan) delivers one of her most entertaining cases yet.

March 1, 2011
When fading country-and-western singer Darla Denman gets stranded in Salt Lick, Texas, on her way to a comeback gig at a charity telethon, Domestic Equalizers Debbie Sue and Edwina are soon up to their pierced earlobes in the minidramas engulfing Darlas squabbling entourage. For starters, theres the outsize outrage of baby-diva Roxie Jo Jenkins, no doubt caused by her marriage to Darlas ex-husband and current manager, Bob. Add to that the mystery surrounding Roxies personal makeup artist, Valetta Rose, and the typical musicians-with-a-past backgrounds of her band members, and Darlas tour has the makings of an accident waiting to happen. But Roxies death just minutes before the telethon begins is no accident, and when first Darla and then Bob confesses to the murder, the Domestic Equalizers know theyre the only ones who can discover who really deserves to be singing the jailhouse blues. Cashs relentlessly feisty heroines attract trouble faster than a skunk in a perfume factory but, delightfully, manage to come out smelling like a rose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)