The first book in the Barbara Marr Mysteries series by Karen Cantwell is just as funny as advertised. This comedic mystery follows movie lover and housewife, Barbara Marr as she stews with the inexplicable development of her husband moving out of the house because “he needs space.” Yeah, I’d be furious too if my husband just popped that idea out of the blue without a warning or indicating anything was wrong with her marriage.

Anyway she is trying to get through it for her daughters by pretending everything is normal and getting her own passion project off the ground with a movie review website.

So how does the mystery come in? Well, there are mysterious going-ons in the House of Many Bones next door. The house that has been vacant for ages and who neighbors hurriedly run away and avoid talking about it. After hearing mysterious noises from it, she goes to investigate. The very next morning, escaped lab monkeys are swinging in her yard.

Well, as you can guess from the Take the Money andn Run homage, there are some mafiosos lurking in the background of her sleepy Virginian suburb of Rustic Woods. Add the mysteriously disappearing yet still caring husband and an ex-boyfriend PI friend, Colton with an instantiable nosyness, Barbara ends up being the Lieutenant Ripley (from the Alien franchise) she always wanted to be.

The writing is engaging and since it’s only 200 pages, it’s breezy read. Plus, as a movie fan myself, the way Barabara’s perspective focused on movies comparing the people in her life to movie characters/actors (her husband being George Cloony) to how she uses movie tropes to figure out how to super-sleuth next. Plus it genuinely does have funny scenes and witty comments with an eccentric cast.

Unfortunately I can’t find the other books in my library so I won’t review the others, but it is well worth the read if you want something fun.