Overjoyed at Maryanne's engagement, amateur sleuth and mystery author Sophie Katz can't wait for the wedding vows and party toasts to begin. But then Dena--best friend, bridesmaid and all-around vixen--is mysteriously shot just after the announcement, leaving Sophie to wonder whether Mary Ann, who's intent on a Disney-themed wedding with successful toymaker Monty Sanchez, was the real target--or even Sophie herself!
Sophie is an established author who fancies herself a bit of a detective. I’m jumping in 5 books into the series, but any backstory that was relevant is explained. The characters here are over-the-top in one way or another, from the Disney loving Mary-Ann and Monty to the polyamorous Dena and Jason to the perpetually-stoned Amelia to the secretive Russian Anatoly. And Sophie is the glue that holds all of them together. As you would expect from the cover, the tone to this mystery is relatively light. At least, as light as it can be when someone has been shot and possibly paralyzed. My one complaint is that Sophie doesn’t really do any detecting here… things just sort of happen to her, and she reacts. The actions she takes are generally a result of someone else’s contribution or intervention. And at one point it looked like there was going to be a twist, but then it just evaporated. I think I might have preferred that to the actual ending, which was not entirely unexpected. All in all, this wasn’t a bad read, but I probably won’t rush out to pick up the earlier books in the series.
