The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss

Starred review from November 27, 2017
Wirestone effortlessly integrates comedy into a murder inquiry in his outstanding third Dahlia Moss mystery (after 2016’s The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss). Emily Swenson, a mercenary attorney acting on the behalf of an unnamed client, hires Dahlia, who is studying to be a PI, to commit corporate espionage. Emily plants Dahlia as a temporary receptionist at Cahaba Apps, a game-development company in St. Louis. Dahlia’s mission is to steal the code for a new game Cahaba is developing. Cahaba proves to be full of eccentrics whose struggle to complete the new project on time is complicated by an intensely negative blog post about its oppressive working conditions. Dahlia’s efforts to complete her covert assignment become even more difficult after she finds a dead woman in the ladies’ room. The wry and self-deprecating Dahlia is an endearing lead with a knack for humorous asides (the investigating cop is “the sort of person who, if suddenly killed in action, would be proclaimed as being a couple of weeks away from retirement”). Wodehouse fans will find much to like. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates.

January 1, 2018
Fans of amateur detective Dahlia Moss will be thrilled to learn that her third case scores high, in both laughs and entertainment value. Hired to perform a bit of corporate espionage at a small game-design company, Dahlia walks into a den of sleep-deprived techies and rock-bottom morale. Cahaba Apps' skeleton crew essentially lives at the office, and Dahlia's job as temp secretary consists of ordering food and distributing clean laundry to the staff. Her job as spy is to steal code for her mysterious employer and ascertain what is delaying the game's development. Within hours of arriving at the office, she finds a woman's dead body in the supply closet, shifting her simple spy gig into a full-blown investigation. Wirestone takes advantage of his story's setting, filling the office with colorful characters who bring their personal dramas to the table in highly comedic fashion, from a scene spoofing Say Anything to a roofie incident gone spectacularly awry. Dahlia sees significant developments in her love life and career, and, as always, her graceless charm lights up the page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)