The debate gets a bit heated especially when political blogger Bob Webber, who doesn’t like Glokkmann, is found murdered in a newly opened motel where Mira just happens to be spending the evening with hunky Johnny trying to figure out if they have a relationship and if so, where it should go. A few days later, Swydecker is hospitalized after an apparent suicide attempt and Glokkmann is found shot, and police are unsure whether it was murder or suicide.

Mira gets involved in these deaths because her octogenarian friend Mrs. Berns has announced her intentions to marry Bernard Mink who is no good in Mira’s book, and who has a police record and is their number one suspect. Mira doesn’t see what Mrs. Berns finds marriage worthy in Bernard, but she is one of Mira’s best friends. So Mira sets out to clear Bernard’s name so the wedding can go on as planned.

Even with Mrs. Berns’s request, Mira doesn’t have much reason to investigate the murders as zealously as she does. And when the police warn her about her investigation, she continues trying to convince them that she knows who the murderer is even though the reason she knows is a bit out there.

Mira is not terribly interesting, though she is very caring toward Mrs. Berns and helps her out the best she can when the woman’s children try to have the older woman declared incompetent and take over her care. The plot is often plain silly, though not in a funny way. Mira continues to fight her alcoholism and her past demons as she struggles with a possible relationship with Johnny. Not the best book in the series, Mira is a little off her game this time.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry