Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico

Maria DiRico brings us the first in her brand new Catering Hall Mystery series, Here Comes the Body.

It’s a cozy new mystery about NY mobster, Ravello Carina going straight.  He’s won the Belle View, a floundering catering hall, in a high stakes poker game, and is bound and determined to make his new business 100% legit.  He recruits his daughter, Mia, to help take control of the business and she’s more than ready to step up to the plate.

Mia, recently single, is glad to return to Queens to start a new career.  What could be better than working with your dad — both of you starting out with a new business venture and a clean slate?  New York City is the city that never sleeps – and all those NY party people need a posh venue to party!  Mia and Ravello want everyone to know there’s just no better place than the freshly made-over Belle View.

For Mia, the timing is perfect.  She’s temporarily moving in with her beloved granny, Lizabetta, while starting her new gig — her life getting back on track after a major derailment on the marriage train.

Jumping right in, she’s got her hands full planning a wedding and other upcoming events – but her main focus is on John Grazio’s bachelor party.  Not your ordinary bachelor party by any means.  Everything is over the top — no expenses spared: the drinks, the food, the stripper, the DJ and his music – and oh, yeah, that pesky dead body with a knife sticking out of it!

There’s a ballroom full of suspects, including the staff.  But when police realize the Belle View is owned by a former mobster, it doesn’t take long for them to focus on Mia’s father.  Just when things were looking up with this brand new start for both of them, their lives are sent spiraling.

There’s plenty of well-sketched out characters in this fun, new series. The filthy rich Koller Brothers reek of arrogance, a snotty real estate is trying to sell out seniors’ homes right out from under them, a social media wanna-be brother in the slammer, a granny that you’d love to call your own and a staff that’s more assorted than a gourmet cheese board, all make for a swell read.

You’ll enjoy following along with Mia as she desperately tries to figure out whose sabotaging the family business with dead bodies.  If the body count doesn’t stop and the killer isn’t caught, Mia and Ravello’s dream of a successful family business will disappear faster than you can say “Houdini.”

Mia is as feisty and lovable as Ellen Byron, author of the Cajun Mystery series – and that’s because Maria DiRico “IS” Ellen Byron.  Fans of Ellen Byron’s beloved Cajun Country Mystery series will be delighted with her newest endeavor – I know I was! 

Check out the first in this new series (with another one in the works) and don’t forget to check out her Cajun Country Mysteries while you’re at it – all good stuff!

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher.  Kensington Publishing is a paid sponsor of Wonder Women Sixty.