Lights! Camera! Murder! by Loni Emmert

Author Loni Emmert has worked in entertainment for thirty years, so she put her background to good use with her first Abigail Whitefeather mystery, Lights! Camera! Murder! Although Abigail Whitefeather does everything an amateur sleuth should not do, this is still a fun mystery.

Just when Abigail Hale was planning the rest of her life after sending her only daughter off to college, her husband announced he was leaving her for someone else. After falling apart, the forty-year-old packed up her dreams from the past, took back her maiden name of Whitefeather, and moved to Hollywood to see if she could have a career in acting. She wasn't there long before landing a bit part in a soap opera. No one paid attention to an actress with a small part, so she overheard a number of arguments about the leading man's plans to leave the show. Abby had no idea that life would imitate TV though, and the star would end up dead outside her townhouse. Now, she has to convince the handsome homicide detective that she isn't a killer.

Yes, there's an amateur sleuth who pokes around and almost gets herself killed. Yes, there are a couple romantic interests, including the police detective. Lights! Camera! Murder! really doesn't have an original plot.  It's just a fun mystery in which a likable woman takes her life in her own hands, in more ways than one.

Loni Emmert's website is http://thewordmistresses.com

Lights! Camera! Murder! by Loni Emmert. Hilliard & Harris. ©2010. ISBN 9781591333104 (paperback), 184p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure - The author sent me a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.

Button Hollow Chronicles No. 1: The Leaf Peeper Murders by Loni Emmert & P.I. Barrington

When I first "met" Mrs. Anne Jolie Watson, I suspected I was in for a comic mystery focused on seniors. And, it's true that Anne Jolie does provide the comic relief in this story. But she has an important role in the small community mystery, Loni Emmert and P.I. Barrington's Button Hollow Chronicles No. 1: The Leaf Peeper Murders. Anne Jolie represents all those people who care enough about their community to stand up for it.

And, despite his frustrations with Anne Jolie and the other seniors in the Button Hollow Citizens' Brigade, Sheriff Jeff Ramsay needs people who are suspicious of outsiders. Maybe Anne Jolie's calls and complaints aren't always on target, as when she calls saying she smells chlorine. And, she really shouldn't be allowed to drive the SUV given to the Brigade, since her most recent accident in it is her third. But, Anne Jolie keeps Ramsay on his toes. He refuses to knuckle under to the mayor and call two suspicious deaths suicides. In his own way, Jeff Ramsay is as suspicious as Anne Jolie. When Anne Jolie and a fellow senior are found knocked out and tied up in their car, the sheriff knows Anne Jolie is right. There's something strange going on in Button Hollow, New Hampshire. Now, if Sheriff Jeff Ramsay can set aside his personal problems long enough to deal with the community's, he may be able to solve the mystery.

Emmert and Barrington take readers into the heart of small town life, its people. Crime isn't unique to the city. Murder can find its way to small villages such as Button Hollow. The authors gave us two memorable characters in Mrs. Anna Jolie Watson and Sheriff Jeff Ramsay. They represent memorable parts of any small town, the caring citizens and those who care to protect the citizens. The Leaf Peeper Murders bring those elements to life in an enjoyable mystery.

The authors' website is www.thewordmistresses.com

Button Hollow Chronicles No. 1: The Leaf Peeper Murders by Loni Emmert and P.I. Barrington. Mainly Murder Press. ©2010. ISBN 9780982589991. 176p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure: The authors sent me a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.