Brenda Joyce Deadly Kisses

Deadly Kisses

Brenda Joyce

Mira, Feb 2006, $6.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0778322688

In 1902 New York amateur sleuth Francesca Cahill gets her father to agree to support her marrying notorious businessman Calder Hart, who he fears will break his daughter's heart one day, but dad stipulates she wait one year to wed him. Not long after compromising with her caring father, Francesca receives a note from Rose who asks her to come quickly to Daisy Hart's home.

Though she is reluctant to visit Daisy, Calder's former lover who hates her, Francesca comes anyway. A near hysterical Rose asks Francesca to investigate the homicide of Daisy, as she does not trust the police. Francesca would prefer to team up with Commissioner Rick Bragg as she has done several times recently. However, her mind is made up for her when she sees Calder, who was supposed to be in Boston on business, staring at the battered corpse. The evidence points at her fianc as the killer. Everyone assumes he committed homicide, except Francesca who refuses to believe her beloved would kill so viciously, though she knows he is concealing something from her.

The latest Cahill historical amateur sleuth ale (though not paid can you remain classified an amateur sleuth after eight or nine investigations?) is a terrific tale, as the audience obtains a fine murder mystery and further insight into how Francesca's parents feel about Calder as a son-in-law. The inquiry is interesting because everyone assumes that Calder killed Daisy, except Francesca who sets out to prove she is right in spite of her beloved not cooperating. Brenda Joyce freshens up her Cahill capers with this fine who-done-it, that also moves forward on the two male fronts that had seemed stagnant in recent books.