A LITTLE NIGHT MURDER

A reporter whiles away the final days of her pregnancy juggling beaux and solving murders.

Nora Blackbird (Little Black Book of Murder, 2013, etc.) is feeling the heat on her aging Bucks County farm as she counts down the days until the arrival of Baby Girl Abruzzo, the first child she expects this summer. The second should arrive closer to fall courtesy of her nephew Rawlins, whose brief but torrid affair with an older woman left her with an unwanted bun in her irresponsible oven. To avoid the swelter, Nora hangs out poolside with her friend Lexie Paine as Lexie avoids the reporters who’ve stalked her since her recent release from prison. Next door to Lexie’s mansion, Fred Fusby pounds the piano as Boom Boom Tuttle, widow of legendary Broadway composer Toodles Tuttle, rehearses for her comeback in a recently discovered extravaganza penned by her late husband. The cast has barely taken a break when Boom Boom’s middle-age daughter, Jenny, is found dead in her room. Nora’s boss, Gus Hardwicke, editor of the Philadelphia Intelligencer, wants her to exploit her ties to the Tuttles to get the scoop on Jenny’s death. He also wants her to rat out her friend Lexie to the Intelligencer’s crime reporter. Mostly, though, he wants to get into her pants, undeterred by her burgeoning belly. Nora, who’s planning to marry Baby Girl’s dad, mobster Michael Abruzzo, is both repelled and fascinated by Gus’ ardor but makes intermittent attempts to find Jenny’s killer for the sake of her job.

Martin’s insistence on casting Nora in the dual roles of Earth Mother and Love Goddess deep-sixes any hope of a decent mystery.