Christietown : A Cece Caruso Mystery

Christietown depicts a mystery-theme housing development in the desert east of L.A. Preposterous? Well, anything's possible in California. Here, CeCe Caruso, Kandel's biographer of mystery authors and amateur sleuth, is hired to help promote the new homes, but finds herself investigating two strange deaths instead. In this fourth in a wacky and delightful series, CeCe is working on a biography of Agatha Christie and uses some of Miss Marple's techniques to solve the crimes.

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 realor suffer the same mysterious fate.

Susan Kandel is a former art critic for the Los Angeles Times. She has taught at New York University and UCLA, and served as editor of the international journal artext. She lives in West Hollywood, California, with her husband, two daughters, and dog.

Distributor: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: 06-12-2007
Pages: 288
Measurements: 8in X 5.3125in X 0.648649in X 8.64oz