Here Comes the Body (A Catering Hall Mystery)
by Maria DiRico
About Here Comes the Body
Here Comes the Body (A Catering Hall Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Kensington (February 25, 2020)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 page
ISBN-10: 1496725344
ISBN-13: 978-1496725349
Digital ASIN: B07R8WYLSC
After her philandering husband’s boat went down, newly single Mia Carina went back to Astoria, the bustling Queens neighborhood of her youth. Living with her Nonna and her oversized cat, Doorstop, she’s got a whole new life—including some amateur sleuthing . . .
Mia is starting work at Belle View, her father’s catering hall, a popular spot for weddings, office parties, and more—despite the planes that occasionally roar overhead on their way to LaGuardia and rattle the crystal chandelier. Soon she’s planning a bachelor party for a less-than-gentlemanly groom. But it goes awry when the gigantic cake is wheeled in and a deadly surprise is revealed . . .
Since some of her family’s associates are on the shady side, the NYPD wastes no time in casting suspicion on Mia’s father. Now, Mia’s going to have to use all her street smarts to keep him out of Rikers Island . . .
Italian recipes included!
Excerpt
She shook off the moment and returned to the vow renewal reception, passing Felicity Stewart Forbes, who was handing out business cards to a nonplussed knot of senior citizen guests. “Like the saying goes, the future is now,” she fluted. “Especially when you reach a certain age, if you know what I mean.”
“We know what you mean. We’re old.” A man holding tight to the walker in front of him responded with asperity to Forbes, earning a chuckle from Mia.
She found the anniversary couple posing for photos in the outdoor gazebo where they’d renewed their vows. Flushing Bay lay in the distance, as did LaGuardia Airport’s air traffic control tower. Mia was helping their photographer find a camera angle that blocked out the tower when she heard a loud whoop coming from the Bay Ballroom upstairs. They must have wheeled in the pop-out cake, she thought. The photographer finished taking pictures of the anniversary couple and Mia was herding everyone back to the Marina Ballroom when her headset buzzed. It
was Cody.
“We have a situation, ma’am.”
The tone of his voice alarmed her. “What’s going on? And feel free to call me Mia.”
“No one jumped out of the cake.”
“Did you look inside to make sure someone was in there?”
“Affirmative. I had one of the waiters double-check before we wheeled the cake out. Something must be wrong with the lady inside it.”
“I’m on my way.”
She hurried out of the Marina Ballroom into the foyer and was about to start up the stairs when an attractive woman in a trench coat burst through the Belle View front doors. “Sorry I’m late,” she gasped, out of breath. “They switched the N and R trains and I wound up in Forest Hills.”
Mia stared at her. “Who are you?”
The woman opened her coat, revealing a sequined bikini. “Park Lexington. I’m working the bachelor party.”
“You’re the stripper? Then who’s in the—”
Mia’s stomach clenched. She raced up the stairs and burst into the Bay Ballroom. John’s guests whooped and cat-called. “Yeah, baby, finally!” one yelled.
“I’m not the stripper!” Mia yelled back.
Cody helped her climb to the top of the cake. She threw open the lid and peered inside. A woman lay crumpled on the bottom. It was Angie, the call girl who’d paid Ravello Carina a visit only days before.
Mia prayed she was unconscious, but the blood pooling under the knife sticking out of the woman’s chest told a different story.
She’d been murdered.
Review Coming Soon!
About Maria DiRico
Maria DiRico was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Queens and Westchester County. She is a first-generation Italian-American on her mother’s side. On her father’s side, her grandfather was a low-level Jewish mobster who disappeared in 1933 under mysterious circumstances. She also writes the award-winning, bestselling Cajun Country Mystery series under the name Ellen Byron.
Website – https://www.ellenbyron.com/catering-hall-mysteries
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/CateringHallMysteries/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/ellenbyronla
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