Nancy Pickard Presents Malice Domestic: An Anthology of Original Mystery Stories
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List Price:
Price: $4.79
You Save: $20.21 (81%)
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Crespi Camilla
The Trouble with a Bad Fit: A NOVEL OF FOOD, FASHION, AND MYSTERY
 Description"New York Fashion Week is only days away and Simona's new client and friend is desperate to finish the collection she hopes will bring her back to fame. Then her fitting model and muse is found murdered in the ladies room. Simona's live-in detective boyfriend, in charge of the case, warns her to stay away, but Simona isn't about to lose a client or let down a friend. Except her boyfriend isn't the only one who wants her off the case. On the way home one evening, Simona is attacked. Dmitri, a Russian cabdriver, arrives on the scene just in time and Simona hires him to be her bodyguard, which doesn't do her much good. Attacked a second time, she ends up in the hospital more determined than ever to find the murderer.Ambitious new partner, angry tailor, overly-protective sample maker, grateful seamstress, jealous competitor-the suspects are many. Only when Simona delves into the past does she arrive at the truth, but not before risking her life again, this time on the runway of Bryant Park. Fashion Footnotes and a recipe for Schmatta pasta are included. ""A fast-paced thriller with a convincing fashion background and a cast of characters big enough to fill a Prada bag."" -Suzy Menkes, The New York Times Book Review ""This is a clever little novel with lots of insider bits about high fashion and snappy characters."" -Margaret Cannon, Toronto Globe and Mail ""Sprightly, sunny and gossipy: a welcome return."" -Kirkus Reviews ""Griffo is an engaging personality: determined, charming and willing to go the extra mile. She might be bloody and bruised, but she is unbowed. I met a heroine whose new adventures I'll seek out."" -Roberta Alexander, Contra Costa Times"
THE TROUBLE WITH MOONLIGHTING: A SIMONA GRIFFO MYSTERY
 Description"Simona is using her vacation time from HH&H advertising to moonlight for old friends from Italy on a film called ""Where Goes the Future?"" The future of Johanna Gayle, the five million dollar star, seems shaky indeed when she's almost electrified in the Lincoln Center fountain during a night shoot. Everyone rules it an accident, but is it? Simona knows that anything can happen on a set where the star plays one man against the other, the director treats her actors like scum, and the aging protagonist obsesses about his vanishing sex. The worst does happen. Simona finds Johanna sprawled in the bedroom of her deluxe apartment, a copper wire around her neck. When Simona's detective boyfriend arrests Johanna's lover, the set photographer, Simona is ready to risk her job and boyfriend to exonerate her old Sicilian friend.A recipe for Sicilian Good Fish Salad is included. ""Crespi deserves special congratulations for her characterization of Simona [Her] writing makes Simona seem very very human the end result is a heroine who rings true."" -Jennie G. Jacobson, The Drood Review of Mystery ""For me, the independence, the insecurity and the introspection set Simona apart from a lot of today's female sleuths."" -Joyce Christmas, Mysterious Women ""The setup is good and Crespi is acutely perceptive."" -Susan Oleksiw, Mystery Scene ""Simona is an interesting character. She's smart and inquisitive and still trying to adjust to American ways. Her divorce has left her dependent and emotionally needy-a situation her detective boyfriend is trying to deal with."" -Oline H. Cogdill, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel"
The Trouble with a Hot Summer
 Description"A vacation in fabulous East Hampton turns ugly after advertising legend Bud Warren asks Simona to investigate his wife's supposed suicide, which he is convinced was murder. A few hours later someone burns down Bud's waterfront home. Then Bud is found drowned. Was Bud's hunch about his wife, Polly, the reason for his murder? Or was the reason hidden in his burned-down house? Was Polly in fact murdered? There are enough questions to keep Simona and her new sleuthing partner, Dmitri K, running back and forth from the Hamptons to Manhattan. And too many suspects: Laurie Warren, who couldn't stand her mother. Steve, local bayman, who feels the Warrens cheated him out of valuable land. Bud's partner, Lester, who wanted control of the agency. Jim, restaurant owner, who is seducing Simona. Dodo, local eccentric, who spews regret and Lewis Carroll quotes, and Rebecca, famous painter, who knew Bud from another time. As fire rages across the Hamptons and Simona zeroes in on the murderer, she has to watch her step to stay alive.A recipe for Cool Pasta is included. ""The mix of breezy vacation fun and somber matters of death, passion and art provides the tension needed to make this a sultry summer read."" -Publishers Weekly ""The Trouble with a Hot Summer is even better that Simona's last outing. This is a brisk mystery and a fun read, and Camilla Crespi is one hot writer."" -Richard Centner, Mostly Murder ""As is true with the earlier novels, Simona is fun to read about as are the different and interesting settings for each of her stories. For well-knit stories told in a humorous vein Crespi is right up there with today's best."" -Don Sandstrom, Mystery News ""Good beach fare, especially if you're headed to bonacker country."" -GraceAnne A. DeCandido, Booklist"
The Trouble With Going Home
 Description"Something is very wrong between Simona's parents, and she flies home to Rome to find out more, only to witness the murder of Tamar, an American art student in front of her mother's new home. When the police connect the murder weapon to the apartment where Mama is now living, Simona has no choice but to sharpen her detecting skills. Was Tamar killed because she claimed to have found a lost Leonardo drawing? Because she was playing with drugs? Or had she discovered someone's nasty secret? Mama's best friend won't say why she kicked Tamar out of her home and Simona's philandering ex-husband swears he was only a friend. Then there's Prince Maffeo who gave Tamar a home in his dilapidated palazzo. And the American owner of the art school who took the student under his wing. Fortified by Mama's great cooking, Simona pokes into the dark corners of many hearts to reach the shocking truth about the murder and her parents.A recipe for Pasta Allegria is included. ""Murder may provide the impetus for the action in this book, but it is the particularly Roman lust for life that keeps us turning the pages-and contemplating our next meal."" -Tom and Enid Schantz, Denver Post ""For the armchair traveler, evocative descriptions of the Eternal City make an interesting backdrop to a compelling mystery. The book will appeal to those who like Italian food (who doesn't?) and female amateur detectives."" -Elorise Holstad, Deadly Pleasures ""One of the joys of reading this book is discovering the city of Rome through Simona's eyes. Camilla Crespi makes the city come alive: you meet and see the people, the buildings, the streets and the plazas. And the food. Food is as important an ingredient in The Trouble with Going Home as murder."" -Ken Hughes, Critics Choice-America OnLine ""The picture Crespi paints of the extended Italian family is emotionally complex, and her knowledge of and love for them is worth the visit."" -Kathy Phillips, The Drood Review"
The Trouble with Thin Ice
 Description"Simona and her detective boyfriend are spending Christmas in a cozy Connecticut inn to attend an interracial wedding. It's Simona's first vacation with Greenhouse and her nervousness isn't helped by the presence of Greenhouse's wary teenage son, Willy. Out for some needed cold air, Simona discovers a body under the thin ice of the nearby lake. The dead woman, whose husband had disappeared years earlier, turns out to have had mysterious ties to Kesho, the African American bride-to-be. Greenhouse is in Florida with his ailing mother, leaving Simona in charge of Willy, when Kesho is arrested for the murder. Convinced of her new friend's innocence and with Willy as her Watson, Simona delves into the town's secrets and lies to uncover the truth. Another murder gives Simona a much-needed clue, but her zeal for the truth puts Willy and her in danger. Thanks to Simona's gutsiness and Willy's fast thinking, the murderer gets his due, Kesho walks down the aisle and Greenhouse asks a question.A recipe for Comfort Pasta is included. ""Simona exercises her adorable ways with a vengeance but it is her keen intelligence, not her bubbly personality, that wins."" -Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review ""Rich in atmosphere and buoyed by wry wit, Crespi's briskly paced narrative calls for an encore."" -Publishers Weekly starred review ""Crespi turns out a nicely complicated story that includes both unexpected twists and credible interpersonal tensions Simona's voice is personable. She deals deftly with racism and, more generally, with stereotyping, whether it is used to pigeonhole blacks, Italians, or New Yorkers."" -Wilson Library Journal ""The Trouble With Thin Ice is the best Simona Griffo yet, a fast-paced puzzle with the trademark recipe included."" -M.E. Burness, Reading For Pleasure" Crespi Camilla News
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