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Mandy Dwyer owns a cleaning store in Denver, Colorado. When dowdy-dressing Ardith Brewster, who is a banker, starts to show more flair, she thanks Mandy for introducing her to her new beau at an open house that was sponsored by the cleaners. But when Ardith says she can't tell anyone who her new boyfriend is and that it's a secret, Mandy worries that a married man has taken Ardith for a ride. When Ardith is found dead that weekend, a time that she had said she was going to be with her mystery boyfriend, Mandy fears that a customer of hers might be a killer. When she finds that Ardith wasn't the only one of her female customers to have been found murdered, the idea that she must get to the bottom of who the killer might be overtakes her and she starts to investigate her customer data banks for a suspect. Before long, her strange group of employees, including a flirt and an outspoken ex-bag lady, all get involved in searching for the killer. Though the cops aren't thrilled with amateurs getting involved in the investigation, Mandy won't be stopped as she asks questions. Soon she can't help but suspect almost everybody she sees, including a cop who uses the cleaners, a man who is a well-dressed cowboy, a very grungy strange man who seems to be spending too much time near the cleaners and even her own boyfriend, PI Travis Kincaid. This is the eighth in the Mandy Dwyer mysteries and it's the first I've read. I liked her large group of regulars, friends and relations who populate the book. There are more than a few opinionated loud characters here, including a former bag lady and a man who will happily lecture long and hard all about the finer points of the history of cowboy fashions. This book leans a lot towards comedy with little to do with a good solid investigation, mainly because Mandy and her helpers tend to accuse anyone who crosses their path of being the killer. That makes the story more of an enjoyable light comedy. Mandy uses her family as a secondary story about her much married meddling mother's machinations when dealing with the upcoming wedding plans of a cousin. A fun and light cozy, with more information on the use of starch when ironing Western fashions than you'd ever need to know, PRESSED TO KILL is a good read with a Western flair!
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, February 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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