It’s while she’s spying that Carnegie notices an altercation. The best man is fighting with her best friend’s baby brother while the groom is throwing up all over the lawn. Thoroughly disgusted, she drops the binoculars and gets back to work – only to discover the next morning that the cops fished the best man’s body out of the canal waters. This was no tragic drunken accident either – his femoral artery had been severed.

After the police interview Carnegie, suspicion is firmly placed on Lily’s baby brother. No longer on speaking terms with her best friend, and feeling more than a tad guilty, Carnegie decides to do a little snooping on her own.

Donnelly hits her stride with this third book in the Carnegie Kincaid series. Bridezilla happens to be the heiress to a Starbucks-like family fortune, making the line that Carnegie is walking one of public opinion, business mergers, and personal appearances. Not only is she planning the wedding, she’s also undertaking press conferences and galas. This brings in a multitude of secondary characters – from Bridezilla’s CEO mother, her retired musical maestro stepfather, wedding party members, and various coworkers. This gives the reader plenty of potential suspects to mull over, all of them with plenty of motive and opportunity.

While book three in a series, May The Best Man Die stands alone quite well. Donnelly catches the reader up to speed, without boring this reader who has read the previous two titles. The character development is well done, and the Carnegie/Aaron would-be romance is rehashed enough to whet the appetite of newcomers.

However what makes this cozy series notable are the mystery elements. So often in cozies the mystery plays second fiddle to “charming” aspects of the books. Not here – as while the author’s characters are charming and quirky, the mystery has plenty of red herrings and keeps the reader guessing. While I had pegged the killer early on in this one, the author throws in a lot of smoke, including various potential motives and a twist at the end that kept me humble.

I cannot encourage mystery fans enough to give this series a look. The wedding planner idea is fresh and funny, with potential disaster lurking around every corner for our intrepid heroine. The will-they-or-won’t-they aspect of Carnegie’s relationship with Aaron also adds some spice to the story, yet never left this reader feeling jerked around. In fact, the author wisely answers some questions regarding this relationship, giving some pay off to fans of the series.

There are not enough good adjectives to describe May The Best Man Die. It’s charming, funny, fast, and fresh, with an interesting cast of characters and a bubbly mystery swimming throughout. Carnegie seems to be hitting her stride with her business, just as Donnelly is with her plotting. Readers who like the lighter elements of a cozy but still want a puzzling mystery should definitely take note.

--Wendy Crutcher