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THE PMS MURDER is the fifth of comedy writer Laura Levine's Jaine Austen mysteries. This is the first I've read in this sharply witty chick lit series, and it provided me with several quickly passed hours of light-hearted entertainment. Jaine is invited to join The PMS Club -- a women's support group that meets once a week over guacamole and margaritas to commiserate about love and life -- by her new friend, a wannabe actress named Pam. However, joining the club soon proves to be more a curse than a blessing for Jaine. Though she is warned that Rochelle, the hostess, makes a guacamole to die for, Jaine never takes the warning literally -- until another PMS member, Marybeth, a relentlessly perky interior decorator, drops dead over a mouthful of the green stuff after confessing she is having an affair with Rochelle's husband. Turns out that someone knew about Marybeth's nut allergy and added a fatal dose of peanut oil to the dip. While Rochelle and her husband are the obvious suspects, everyone at that night's meeting is under suspicion, including Jaine, putting a new job opportunity at a conservative downtown bank in jeopardy. Jaine deduces it would be in her best interest if the case were solved quickly and offers to help the police. However, the local homicide detective is less than impressed with her prior success as an amateur sleuth. So, instead of dishing dirt with The PMS Club, Jaine has to dig up dirt on the surviving members -- an alcoholic widow, a sassy 60-something, a too-fabulous honorary male PMS-er, and Pam. As Jaine delves deeper, she tunes into some truly sinister vibes, and it soon becomes clear that someone in this club thinks getting away with murder should be a privilege of membership. Jaine has a lot on her plate, both figuratively and literally. In addition to trying to identify which of her club-mates is the killer, she's getting emails from her parents -- her mom, a home shopping channel junkie, and her dad, America's Most Wanted's number one fan -- whose escapades play out in their communications with Jaine. In the meantime, Jaine's prospective boss, a hunky suit who finds his way into Jaine's fantasies, seems to have a knack for catching her in memorable real-life moments that she'd just as soon he forget, the most hilarious of which involves a big, sloppy burrito. Through it all, Jaine keeps up a running inner monologue of biting sarcasm, wisely keeping her comments to herself and choosing the more politically correct approach when she actually opens her mouth. Levine's writing style is breezy and fast-paced, easy to follow and delightfully entertaining, but beneath the story's light exterior are some darker elements that add depth to the plot as well as the characters. The smattering of well-placed clues and subtle distractions make it a challenge to figure out who the real killer is until the truth is revealed, and I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome of this cleverly-crafted mystery.
Reviewed by J. B. Thompson, August 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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