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DEATH OF A DOMESTIC DIVA
by Sharon Short
Avon, July 2003
261 pages
$6.50
ISBN: 0060537957


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Josie Toadfern owns a laundromat in Paradise, Ohio, and there isn't a stain she can't get out. When Paradise is dropped from the state map of Ohio, Josie decides to find a way to get it back on the map. She writes to Tyra Grimes, a television personality who seems to be a clone of Martha Steward (complete with scandal), suggesting that Tyra tape a segment of her show in Paradise. Everyone in Paradise,, including Josie, is dumfounded when Tyra shows up to do precisely that.

There are one or two people in Paradise who are less than ecstatic about Tyra being in town. One is Josie's cousin Billy, a former preacher now trying to sell his invention (the Cut-N-Suck haircutting vacuum attachment). Another is Lewis Rothchild, the local undertaker.

Tyra does come to Paradise, and the whole town goes bonkers. The night that Tyra appears, Lewis Rothchild is killed. The obvious culprit is Elroy Magruder, who has a long history of discord with Mr. Rothchild. Nobody except Josie has any questions about the killing. Josie wonders why Tyra Grimes is present at the scene of the crime, why she is wearing high-heeled shoes for an evening walk down a dirt road, where did Tyra's assistant Paige disappear to, and why Elroy would kill Lewis NOW when he hasn't before? The sheriff is not interested in Josie's questions, having fallen under the omnipresent charms of Tyra.

The scandal dogging Tyra involves the alleged use of illegal immigrants in labor camps to manufacture the "Tyra Grimes" line of clothing. Some of this clothing has appeared in Paradise, although nobody knows from whence it came. Tyra seems far more upset about the disappearance of some paperwork, which Josie suspects has to do with the scandal, than with the disappearance of her assistant. Then Tyra is murdered, in the middle of a tornado.

Josie, with the help of her boyfriend Owen and the local librarian Winnie, does manage to solve the mystery. I had some problems with the use of Mrs. Oglevee (a dead former teacher of Josie's, who appears to Josie in her dreams) as a kind of deus-ex-machina; it seemed very contrived to me. I'm also not sure that the reader could have solved it with the clues as given, but that doesn't seem to be as much of a requirement any more.

In the beginning, I found this book to be just too cute; I almost didn't finish it because of the treacle-y ness of it all. Either I got over it, or the book got better, because by the end of the book I was enjoying it. I won't wait with bated breath for the next Sharon Short mystery, but I'd read the next one if I come across it.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, August 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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