A Cast of Killers

A MYSTERIOUS GROUP OF ELDERLY ACTRESSES—WITH SECRETS TO KILL FOR…In Katy Munger's SECOND cozy Hubbert and Lil mystery, stalwart amateur sleuth T.S. Hubbert and his trusty sidekick Auntie Lil take on a scrappy should-be-retired troupe of ex-actresses, who—surprise, surprise—aren’t at all what they seem…. “With a fond eye for the eccentric, [Munger] gives the streets of Hell's Kitchen the air of a gritty English village.”—Publishers WeeklyQuirky investigator Theodore Hubbert — T.S. for short — is awakened out of his regular afternoon revelry (watching his favorite soap opera) by a phone call from none other than his Aunt Lil, whose penchant for interrupting… well, really anything T.S. is interested in, is uncanny. As per usual, Auntie Lil is calling to ask for a tiny little favor — a helping hand at a Manhattan soup kitchen. Naturally, T.S. wasn’t listening to her beggar’s soliloquy and unwittingly agrees to work that afternoon’s shift. But T.S.’s afternoon turns out to have more in store than ladling soup. Because no good deed goes unpunished — especially when Auntie Lil is involved. In the middle of lunch (an inventive chili recipe Lil proudly boosted from a real life cowboy in Santa Fe), a little old lady suddenly jumps up, clutching at her throat… and drops dead. New York’s Finest couldn’t care less about the demise of an elderly woman who presumably had a heart attack. But a group of soup kitchen regulars — a crew of once-elegant and now-impoverished minor role actresses from the Kennedy era — appear shaken. Turns out they knew the deceased. And their woeful reactions are dramatic, to say the least. But are they just acting? Ever unable to keep her mouth shut, Aunt Lil offers up the shocked and (seemingly) grief-stricken actresses her nephew’s private investigator services to investigate the woman’s real identity. Reluctantly, T.S. agrees to help. After all, he dryly muses, it’s not like she was murdered. Famous last words. Throughout this irresistibly cozy mystery, Auntie Lil’s tall tales add comic relief to a thoroughly engaging murder mystery. And true to form, she remains a nosey pest — who happens to be utterly adorable and, quite annoyingly, very often right. Meanwhile, T.S.’s antics, which are reminiscent of Columbo or Agatha Christie’s finicky Hercule Poirot, will delight fervent mystery fans. If you just read The Thursday Murder Club, read this next!