Part of the Jaine Austen mystery series, this novel finds Jaine facing financial difficulties that force her to take a job for the last person she ever imagined working for, her high school enemy, the rich and spoiled Patti. Patti is getting married and she needs Jaine to write the vows for the wedding. What Patti wants is for Jaine to rewrite the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. Patti wants something more upbeat, something like from the sitcoms Friends or Seinfeld. Jaine's mind boggles at the task but since she needs the money she knuckles under and gets to it.
Patti, high school bully and general mean girl, hasn't changed in the years since school. Her wedding is turning into a regular high school reunion as she calls upon her old classmates to help with the wedding. Indeed, she met her hubby-to-be at a recent reunion and even though he was married, it was love at first sight.
Patti has run-ins with virtually everyone as the big day approaches. It isn't really much of a surprise when, during the big wedding day balcony scene, Patti falls from the balcony to her death. Investigators discover the balcony railing was tampered with.
Number one on the cops suspect list is the grooms ex-wife. But as Jaine discovers, lots of people had reason to hate the bride. As Jaine looks into the murder, she attracts the attention of the killer.
This is the first book I have read in the Jaine Austen series and I enjoyed it a lot. The author is a skillful and funny writer with a lengthy resume including writing for the Bob Newhart Show, Laverne & Shirley, and Three's Company. She also contributes material to Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. In this novel, her heroine Jaine has lots of goofy and humiliating encounters, encounters that would send a more sensitive character into permanent exile. Like when her date for the wedding is exposed as a hired escort and like when Jaine lights some hapless schmuck's hairpiece on fire, also at the wedding. All in all, this book was a lot of fun to read and I am looking forward to reading more from this talented author.
Review by Kirkus Reviews.
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