31-year-old society matron Lola Woodby has survived her loveless marriage with an unholy mixture of highballs, detective novels, and chocolate layer cake, until her husband dies suddenly, leaving her his fortune or so Lola thought. As it turns out, all she inherits from Alfie is a big pile of debt. Pretty soon, Lola and her stalwart Swedish cook, Berta, are reduced to hiding out in the secret love nest Alfie kept in New York City. But when rent comes due, Lola and Berta have no choice but to accept an offer made by one of Alfie's girls-on-the-side at his funeral. In exchange for a handsome sum of money, the girl wants Lola to retrieve a mysterious reel of film for her. It sounds like an easy enough way to earn the rent money. But Lola and Berta realize they're in way over their heads when, before they can retrieve it, the man currently in possession of the film reel is murdered, and the reel disappears. On a quest to retrieve the reel and solve the murder before the killer comes after them next, Lola and Berta find themselves navigating one wacky situation after another in high style and low company.
Charming, witty, often laugh-out-loud funny, Maia Chance's Come Hell or Highball introduces a sparkling new voice in crime fiction.
Prohibition era; Lola's husband dies of a heart attack and she discovers he wasn't as rich as she'd thought. She and her cook Berta are without house and home, and while hiding out in her husband's heretofore unknown love nest in the city, agree to retrieve a film reel for one of her late husband's mistresses. Thus begins what is supposed to be a madcap and hilarious adventure into mystery and mayhem.
Eh. Either I was off my game or the book was. Nothing struck me as madcap so much as it did silly (and there's a subtle difference, in my opinion). Lola failed to elicit much sympathy from me, her mother was annoying in all the wrong ways, her brother in law unrealistically meddlesome (he kept trying to gaslight Lola) and Berta was sorta weird. The romantic tension that was supposed to exist between Ralph and Lola was absent. The mystery plot was all over the place; incredibly complicated, and hinged on unknown information until the very end.
Now that I've beaten the poor book to death, for all that it wasn't a bad read. It kept me entertained enough to keep reading, it just didn't hook me, or bond me to the characters in any way that will result in my desire to read any additional books in the series. Which is a shame, because I do love the Prohibition-era setting.
Reading updates
-
Started reading
-
27 June, 2017:
Finished reading
-
27 June, 2017:
Reviewed