Drive Thru Murder

FOR NEW ORLEANS STYLE MURDER-TAKE LAUGHS, TWISTS, MIX WELL, AND ADD A BELLE Colleen Mooney keeps the twists coming as fast as the laughs in her third THIRD funny cozy starring Brandy Alexander, everybody's idea of the perfect chick lit heroine. Brandy's blonde, adorable, has a good job, two guys to choose from, and very possibly the poor judgment to pick the wrong one. (Half the fun's watching to see if she's ever going to wind up with the right guy for her.) The other half's watching her life complicate itself in ways that would send the average female sleuth screaming into the night. First, she witnesses a murder at a drive-through joint with the unlikely name of CLUCK IT-CHICKEN BY THE BUCKET. And then it turns out nothing at the scene's what it seems-or at any rate--nobody's what they seem. Seems CLUCK IT's not just a place to clog your arteries, but also a transgender hangout. And with that discovery, you know you're in New Orleans. The local color never stops as Brandy's complex Irish Channel family develops the kind of problem that's a lot more fun on the page than in real life. What to do when your sister gets pregnant with one of the next-door twins who are also the brothers of your lifelong flame-but she doesn't know which twin? (Be glad it's Brandy's problem, not yours.)She also finds a mysterious box of valuable jewelry under her closet floor, becomes the unofficial caretaker of the Tarot reader across the street who knows the future but can never predict when she's going to get so drunk she's going to fall into her own bushes, and develops a strong suspicion about one of her other neighbors, all the while juggling the two Romeos. Good thing she's better at solving mysteries than she is at wrangling her boyfriends.The reader can rest assured she's eventually, and in fine style, going to weave together the myriad mysterious strands that confound the police (who happen to count Boy Friend # 1 among their ranks) and present them the solution with all the panache of an old-style detective like Hercule Poirot-yet none of the pretension. You can almost hear her wondering, "Did I do that?" Fans of cozy mysteries and chick lit heroines will delight in Brandy's flat-out lovability and Mooney's almost offhand yet spot-on (and often hilarious) observations of everyday New Orleans life. If you like contemporary stylish heroines like those popularized by Janet Evanovich, Elaine Viets, Stephanie Bond, and Gemma Holliday, and humorous mysteries like those by Donna Andrews, Dorothy Cannell, and Lisa Lutz, you're going to get a girl-crush on Brandy Alexander.