A CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED DEATH
by Nancy Martin
Following her abruptly terminated pregnancy (Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too, 2006), the course of true love continues to run murderous for Philadelphia society reporter Nora Blackbird and her Mafia swain Michael Abruzzo.
A year after aging child star Penny Devine disappeared, her brother and sister, Potty and Vivian, have opened Eagle Glen for a wake disguised as the Penny Devine Memorial Polo Match. Everyone who’s anyone is there, from nonpareil restaurant reviewer Crewe Dearborne to world-class polo player Raphael Braga, who’s torn himself from Nora’s side to play patty-cake with her sister Emma. So is Penny, or at least what looks like a piece of her: a severed hand Nora steps on while she’s strolling with Michael. Will the discovery mean that Potty and Vivian can have Penny declared dead so that the serious fighting over her estate can begin? Will it flush out the illegitimate child she bore 40 years ago? And—let’s get to the heart of the matter—what effect will it have on Nora and Michael’s upcoming nuptials? Dishing dirt on the cast with the brittle gusto of a woman who’s less concerned with losing her baby than with finding the perfect little black dress, Nora keeps the proceedings appropriately arch until the final anticlimax.
The concern about Nora’s marrying into the Mob rings hollow, given that her crowd would be equally concerned if she wed anyone outside the Social Register.