If you think PTA meetings are boring, then you haven’t attended one in Barbara Marr’s neighborhood, where MURDER is on the agenda. Always one to stumble into trouble, Barb learns the hard way that a seemingly innocent yearbook scandal is actually part of a seriously sinister and deadly plot. Join soccer mom and movie lover Barbara Marr in this second laugh-out-loud, chaotic mystery, where high-profile crime and suburban living collide in an unexpected fashion.
Again, not a horror but there is some blood which makes it perfect for October. I enjoyed the first adventure in the Barbara Marr mystery combing a suburban mom with a love for movies, goofy mafia henchmen and madcap escapes. Finally, I got my hands on the next few novels in the series.
The title is apt as the richest widow-mom in town Bunny Bergan appears to be the citizen insane by popping her face in windows and screaming paranoid rants. Also she has a surprising connection to Barbara’s estranged husband (currently out of the house since the first novel when she Barb finds out that he’s not an engineer but an FBI agent this whole time).
The mystery was a bit complicated for me to understand, and over-the-top, but that’s part of the fun. So I allowed my suspension of disbelief that a group of bank robbing sorority sisters all ended up in the same town after several years and sabatoge a yearbook to make sure their crimes aren’t uncovered. But I did enjoy the soul-searching Barabara deals with in how she failed to follow her own advice to her daughters about not believing in second-hand gossip as she did with Bunny, and soon forms a potential new friendship.
The ending also provides a new wrench in the burgeoning love triangle. Though married, there is a rival in the form of bounty hunter, Colt. Long-time friend to the Marrs and Barbara’s ex-bf in college before she married Howard. The ending seems to reunite the husband and wife and Colt puts a brave face, but I wonder how the trio will continue to navigate the obvious unrequited feelings of their friend.
My one complaint would be the inclusion of Barbara’s friends Roz and Penny in the final. After being kidnapped in the first book, for it to happen again in the second feels like a convenience to force them together in the final fight and overcrowded the scene. I was fine with them helping Barbara with her investigation, but it would have been better if Cantwell had simplified the conflict to just Bunny and Barb being held hostage instead of all four of them.
3 stars
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