Shay O’Hanlon is enjoying her first Renaissance Faire with her girlfriend when she encounters a corpse in the Porta Potty — an unappealing guy with a pickle stuffed into his mouth.
It’s a memorable — not to say traumatic – event, and it gets worse when the victim turns out to be a bad guy with whom Shay’s girlfriend, Detective JT Bordeaux, has some serious history. JT has pickle particles on her shirt, she was on the scene, and that’s enough to get her arrested and thrown in jail. JT also has history with the arresting officer, and that guarantees that he won’t be looking any further than JT for the solution to the crime.
Shay gathers an ill-assorted group of friends (they’ll be familiar to fans of the series) and sets out to find the real killer. Along the way, she learns an uncomfortable amount of information about JT. In fact, it begins to feel as though she doesn’t really know her girlfriend at all. It also begins to seem dangerous…
This book has a lot of familiar features for readers of cozy mysteries: a feisty female sleuth supported by daring friends, a romance with a police detective, and dogs who are important characters in their own right. The same-sex romance is unusual and there’s a little social commentary. There’s also quite a bit of violence, including a scene in which an elderly woman beats a man with a baseball bat which appears to be intended to be humorous.
Not all that cozy, in other words. The plot has plenty of twists and turns, and should satisfy fans of the series.