A Catered Halloween
Isis Crawford
Kensington, Sep 2008, $22.00
ISBN: 0758221924
Amethyst Applegate receives a blackmail letter from deceased Bessie Osgood, who died years ago when they attended school together. Unshaken Amethyst plans to take care of the blackmailer as she took care of Bessie.
The Simmons sisters, Libby and Bernie, owners of A Little Taste of Heaven, are ecstatic to cater the Halloween festivities at the Peabody School, a place rumored to be haunted. Businessman Mark Kane is going all out to include construction of a haunted house with high tech special effects that a Hollywood horror move would envy. Everyone is stunned when they see a torso on a table with the severed head of Amethyst nearby.
Finding the killer will not prove easy as everyone has a motive to murder the universally loathed Amethyst whose list of enemies exceeds the Longley phonebook. Libby thinks she sees the ghost of Bessie, but rationalizes that her imagination got the best of her rather than her intuitive powers. Bob Small who is working at the haunted house has a strong reason to kill Amethyst because he spent jail time due to a stunt she pulled. Inez Colley hated the female abomination for stealing her husband and her wealth by seducing and blackmailing her weak spouse. Zachary Timberland held Amethyst culpable for ruining his daughter Zoe. The list goes on. However, the police arrest Bob as he is the only one with opportunity. The Simmons siblings think otherwise so with their father along they investigate the murder of an odious witch.
Isis Crawford outdoes her usual superb catered amateur sleuth novels with A CATERED HALLOWEEN as ghosts and Libby’s visions enhance a whodunit in which the townsfolk, the sisters, and the readers agree beheading is befitting the odious ogress. The two sisters are total opposites yet best friends as each is always there for the other. Due to Libby’s paranormal skills they feel obligated to unmask the real killer as they believe strongly the cops got the wrong person. With euphoric ghosts and plenty of eccentric suspects toasting the killer, solving the case of the murdered witch may prove a recipe for failure for the Simmons, but catered entertainment for series fans.
Harriet Klausner
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