Joanne Pence, Courting Disaster

Courting Disaster

Joanne Pence

Avon, Dec 2004, $6.99, 368 pp.

ISBN: 0060502916

Still between jobs, rich, beautiful and nervous Angie Amalfi is going crazy as she wonders where her engagement party is going to be held and what it will be like. She put the whole affair in her mother's hands so that she can be in charge of creating her wedding. Her next door neighbor Stan is depressed because Angie is getting married to homicide detective Paavo Smith while he failed to get past being a friend in her mind.

At a Greek restaurant, Stan sees waitress Hannah and is immediately smitten. They get to know one another, but he quickly concludes that Hannah fears a waiter who happens to be the father of her unborn child. When Hannah goes into labor, Stan takes her to the hospital and after the baby is born he brings them into his home. When the father is killed, evidence points towards Hannah as the prime suspect, but others had a motive to murder the waiter. Stan, with Angie pushing her way at his side, seeks the identity of the real culprit.

COURTING DISASTER is a great romantic mystery in which the baby scenes provide immense humor (tissues to wipe the tears of laughter unless you are a new parent - then it's sympathy pains). The romance between Angie and Paavo is growing stronger as each begins to accept the eccentricities of their future partner. Stan's desperate inquiries to prove his beloved innocent take a spin when Angie tries to come to the rescue in an electrifying climax that will long be remembered. Courting the bestseller list, Joanne Pence has written a winner deserving an award nomination at the minimum.

Harriet Klausner