Christietown: A Novel About Vintage Clothing, Romance, Mystery, and Agatha Christie (A Cece Caruso Mystery #4)
HarperCollins, 2007
Agent: Sandra Dijkstra
A new suspense-themed housing tract on the edge of the Mojave Desert is about to open, and who better to help promote the Cotswold-cozy development than mystery biographer extraordinaire Cece Caruso? For the grand opening weekend, Cece is staging a play featuring the beloved sleuth Miss Marple. Of course, everything goes wrong, including a leading lady who ends up dead.
All is not well in Christietown; its secrets are as complicated as the truth behind Agatha Christie's real-life disappearance. The developer, an Englishman who claims to be Dame Agatha's descendent, has ruthless investors breathing down his neck. Meanwhile, Cece's got a wedding to plan, a baby shower to give, and an ex-husband who shows up on her doorstep with his fiancée and future mother-in-law. And when another body surfaces, the intrepid amateur sleuth knows she must play the famed detective for real—or suffer the same mysterious fate.
Reviews:
“Former Los Angeles Times art critic Susan Kandel takes her writer-detective CeCe Caruso for a fourth turn in Christietown which, like its earlier series installments, combines the feel of lighthearted “girl sleuth” stories penned by Mignon Eberhart and Mabel Seeley with a more contemporary sensibility.”
—Los Angeles Times
“As with previous installments in this stylish series, Kandel deftly contrasts clever excerpts from Cece’s biographies with her personal dilemmas….”
—Publishers Weekly