Never Preach Past Noon (Leigh Koslow Mystery, #3)

by Edie Claire

The third Leigh Koslow mystery, Never Preach Past Noon, has Leigh investigating on behalf of her Aunt Bess and Warren's Uncle Ted. Both are members of the First Church of the New Millenium run by Reverend Reginald Humphrey who has a dazzling smile and kind eyes - and a terribly bad habit of conning people. Aunt Bess is positive he's a fraud but can't prove it and then Uncle Ted winds up on murder charges and Leigh finds herself right back in the middle.

This one was hilarious. The whole cast of characters had me in hysterics. From Aunt Bess, wh0's a better liar than Leigh had ever imagined, to Frances' mother-henning to Maura's patented disappointed Leigh turns up at a crime look, this had me giggling away. Poor Leigh. She tries so hard not to find a body. But does anyway.

The romance between Warren and Katherine carried over from the last book. Leigh's constant struggle with her feelings over it was very teenage-y. But it ended up sorting itself out without too much drama thankfully. I don't hate her and Warren together. Just annoyed by how they got there with the should I, no I couldn't, blah blah blah. The bit where they actually got together was nice enough anyway.

The mystery was good - I worked out bits and pieces but it was a well plotted storyline. I guessed at the ending although the last chapter was a nice touch. I hated that Maura's confidence was shaken when she fails to find the body in the freezer (- on the other hand - like anyone would expect that a break in was to leave something, rather than to steal) but I was glad she gets her own back with her capture of Noel (Reginald's fake wife) and Martin (Reginald's very real identical twin brother ).

I adored that Frances and Lydie, but mainly Frances is the one to solve/save the day. First she works out that Reginald is a twin. Then she manoeuvres the guy to stand in front of the vicious cat (and ugh cats are evil bastards) and let's him attack. That was a stroke of genius. I loved how dumbfounded Leigh was. I was sad that Randall or Cara didn't really make an appearance. But it was nice getting to know more about the rest of Leigh's family.

A very funny and interesting mystery. 4 stars.