Some Like it Hot

January 28, 2013
At the start of Larsen’s entertaining if uneven third mystery featuring Chicago PI Cat DeLuca (after 2012’s Sticks and Stones), a harried-looking Santa Claus on the run from two thuggish grinches turns out to be Cat’s first sweetheart, lovable ne’er-do-well Billy Bonham, apparently now a PI, too. Billy has taken on a case involving a pair of missing diamond earrings and a femme fatale with a brain tumor that soon lures Cat into tackling bigger game than the cheating husbands her Pants on Fire detective agency usually handles. That three sisters write under the Larsen pseudonym may account for the inconsistent tone. The slangy, cartoonish style suits Pants on Fire shenanigans and Cat’s giant family reunions with the cheerful, semicorrupt DeLuca clan, but Larsen spends so much time clowning that more serious moments, like a childhood friend’s funeral, make little impact. The lighthearted treatment of the gruesome climax may strike some as ghoulish.

January 15, 2013
When a hometown boy turned shamus is killed, Cat DeLuca stops investigating liars and cheats and concentrates on finding a murderer. Cat DeLuca, owner and chief operative of the Pants On Fire Detective Agency, has seen her share of liars and cheats. In fact, her own failed marriage to Johnnie Rizzo was the inspiration for her life's work. She's investigating yet another sleazeball when Santa Claus himself runs through Tierney's bar where she's roosting. After rescuing the red-suited runaway from guys with guns, Cat discovers that he's none other than Bill Bonham, her childhood fiance (well, until she was 9). Billy apparently has a detective agency of his own and dreams of Bogart despite his online license. But he's gunned down the very night that Cat saves him. Cat's vow to find out who killed Billy is spurred by his mother, who had hopes for a romantic reunion for the two. Cat doesn't have the heart to disabuse her of this idea, even though she and FBI agent Chance Savino have been hot and heavy for a while now. Although family friend Police Capt. Bob refuses to investigate Tierney, Cat's convinced it has something to do with him, especially when she finds out that the last case Billy took was something involving Tierney, his unsympathetic former employee Cristina and diamond earrings that may or may not have belonged to Marilyn Monroe. With her gun-toting sidekick, Cleo, Cat's ready to do what it takes to get justice for Billy. All of Cat's cases (Sticks and Stones, 2012, etc.) have been co-authored by three sisters, but this is the first installment that reads that way. The characters are sassy as ever, but their adventures are disjointed and even perfunctory.

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