Chester’s best friend is Prince Harry, the Afghan’s son who he keeps hidden from his mother who hates dogs (even more than Whiskey does), which is how Whiskey ends up with a teacup dog, who’s not named Velcro for nothing.  Whiskey also continues to run her late husband’s successful real estate agency, which includes being the landlord of several renovated buildings. 

In one of the houses is Twyla Rendel and her two children.  This single mother has fallen on hard times and is trying to start over.  When a nosey neighbor reports that the two children are really five children and then nine children, Whiskey realizes she was duped by the young woman and tells her she must jettison some of the children or move out.  Twyla is seen leaving the house, car packed with children’s toys and clothing but no children.  The next time she is seen is when her body washes up on the shores of Lake Michigan, in which rip tides have been occurring with increasing frequency.  The police write off Twyla’s death as a tragic accident, but Whiskey’s not so sure and neither are the witnesses who saw Twyla arguing with a man just before her death.   

In the meantime, there are sightings of Gil Gruen, real estate mogul whose drowning in the ice cold lake Whiskey recently witnessed.  She knows that people can’t come back from the dead and doubts there is any way Gil could have survived the cold water, but others in town are not so sure.  Between her unwanted houseguests and her tenants, Whiskey is at the end of her rope, not to mention she is eager to get back in the saddle where her love life (or at least sex life) is concerned, making all the eligible men around her, Chester’s driver McArthur, self-help guru Fenton Flagg and even ex-hubby Jeb Halloran, look pretty good.  

In spite of the loony characters and the lunacy that is all around Whiskey, the mystery surrounding Twyla’s death takes a surprisingly serious turn.  There are many secrets Twyla has and the more Whiskey learns, the more suspects there are.  The plot picks up its pace as the story progresses and the Gil sightings add more interest to the story and his death is explained well enough that readers new to the series will not feel disadvantaged.                        

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry