Stephanie Bond, 4 Bodies and a Funeral

4 Bodies and a Funeral

Stephanie Bond

Mira, Apr 2009, $6.99

ISBN: 9780778326687

Still mentally reeling from her friend Michael Lane trying to kill her (see 3 MEN AND A BODY), Carlotta Wren is back in Atlanta returning to work at Neiman Marcus. However, her first day back at the job is as wacky as her recent trip to Florida when some lunatic brandishing cake as a weapon tries to get close to Olympic athlete Eva McCoy. Carlotta knows her luck remains south when of the three hunks interested in her, Atlanta Police Detective Jack Terry and his beautiful partner Maria Marquez arrive in time to see Carlotta caked. During the fiasco, the icing turns out to be someone stole Eva's famed charm bracelet.

Soon after the cake incident, a murder victim is found with a charm. Carlotta and Jack believe there is a link between the corpse with a charm and the athlete losing her charm. As more dead bodies with charms surface, Michael escapes incarceration.

Carlotta is a corpse magnet once again with bodies piling up as does the usual suspects wanting her (Jack, her former fianc Peter and her brother's boss Cooper the professional body mover). The heroine is her usual self pondering why she can not have her cake and eat it too since she already has the cake (calories aside). The lighthearted romp retains its graveyard jocularity that is a trademark of the series while fans also wonder who the last man standing will be in the Carlotta sweepstakes.

Harriet Klausner