Courting Disaster: An Angie Amalfi Mystery

The detective of this San Francisco-set mystery (and that is a big part of the charm) is Angie, a woman with enough money that she doesn't need to work, which is a good thing because she's not very good at holding down a job despite her ability as a cordon bleu cook. Angie is engaged to a homicide detective. Her mother is planning their engagement party, and the fact that the party is a secret from Angie is driving her crazy -- she's trying to find out where the party is, the theme, etc. But the real mystery plot involves what's going on in a Greek waterfront restaurant. Angie's neighbor and friend Stan "discovers" the restaurant and falls in love with a pregnant woman associated with the restaurant. She turns to Stan for help and Angie gets involved. Before they know it, they're involved in some puzzling things going on at the restaurant, including trouble coming from the baby's father. THen there's Angie's father, who is being stalked by an employee but doesn't want his wife or daughter to know -- so the father seeks out the help of Paavo, Angie's fiance. As you can tell, there's lots of stuff going on in this book, enough so that the reader moves around among multiple plot lines. It's not difficult to follow, however, in part because the characters are such...characters. Larger than life and likeable, except for the villains. I intend to read more in the series -- although there are enough in the series that I will be busy for a while.

Joanne Pence's Angie Amalfi continues delighting this reader with variations on plugging in her talent as a trained (trapped?) gourmet chef, and through humorously portrayed angst on this-and-that, especially around her mother's interjections of suggested direction. In COURTING DISASTER Angie frets over an engagement party Serefina (her mother) is planning in high profile secrecy. Angie is consumed with desperation to discover the diddly details of her mother's choices of color schemes, etc., related to this upcoming party. I was absolutely taken by surprise and overwhelmingly impressed with the way Angie's well-fed angst over the perfection of her party's ambiance, carried on entertainingly throughout the novel, was concluded in the denouement. Do check out how everyone's Dressed To The Nines? But, from which base number system are they making their debuts? That is the question. Or, one of the many which are answered absolutely. From the first page to the last, this mystery was more sophisticated that most offerings in this genre. The burgundy complexity sneaks up on a reader who's been fooled into feeling he's in the book only for the exquisitely executed "let's party" escapism. All within the justification of escorting a villain to his or her payment of karma, of course. The opening of the novel does a moody-blues, literarily stylish, sensitive step-in as Angie's seemingly superficial friend, Stanfield Bonnette, drags his psyche through a self-pity soliloquy, moaning with such gregarious gusto that temptations of Prozac would be magnetically repelled before they could find an ozone hole for access to mental persuasion. After a few pages of this, Stan has taken the reader into a submarine dive into the murky depths of his unusual character; there's more to him than even he would admit. The Classic opening scene of antique detective fiction describes with sensual sleaze the quintessential dumpy motel room's open window on a red-neon-light blinking to a slow-two-step, keeping rhythm with the hero's nearly dead heart ... beat. The essence (sans motel room ambiance) of that type of urban-fringe, jazzed-up-depression, turning downtrodden into a sought-after art form, is captured in Stan's sensitive soliloquy. Thumbs up for a great Act One, Scene One, Pence! And kiss my joined finger tips in salute for the performances of the generous collection of characters reeking in "Perfecto" personality quirks, and the read-aloud-and-share dialogue dances. Of course the women in the plot are delightfully or dingily feisty and varied in temperament, depth, and essence; but the coup beyond coups in this novel is that every male in the plot is an unusually rich, complex example of that gender of the species. Each is potently, yummy male, yet uniquely one-of-a-kind. The contrast of enlightened-macho-styles between Angie's fiancee, Paavo, and her father is especially well done. I was absolutely entertained by every word, gesture, and action exch

Meet Angie Amalfi, chef and freelance food critic. With her "surprise" engagement party around the corner, Angie is in a whirlwind of motion trying to figure out the details. Then a mysterious woman appears at her neighbor's door. Angie's neighbor is named Stan. He has just been drawn into the life of this woman and her baby. Now Angie must help the woman and Stan out of a murderous baby smuggling ring. **** A slow start but by the end it was a worthwhile read! Angie and Stan's antics are enough to capture any reader's attention. **** Reviewed by K. Blair.

With a full schedule to juggle, Angie has little time to plan an engagement party; so she leaves that to her mother, soon regretting the decision as she frets over what her mother will do to the party. That is the least of her concerns soon, as murder, a stalker, a missing new mother, a harried neighbor and the dreaded color purple keep Angie's life interesting. Her neighbor, Stan, seeks solace for his heart broken state over Angie and Paavo's approaching wedding and his loss of free food, by courting a lovely waitress, who happens to be very pregnant. When she suddenly gives birth, Stan becomes her savior, until she vanishes and the child's father is killed. Going to the authorities to investigate would put the baby into the hands of CPS- but there's always Angie, who kind of has police credentials because she has helped out her fiance' before on his police cases. Right? Right. Paavo has his own worries. Someone is scaring Angie to death, and it could become the real deal if he doesn't catch the stalker. **** Angie Amafali's saga is always so much fun that you can't help but smile when a new entry comes along. It has all the warmth and zaniness of more famous books, but less angst to weigh it down. Her romance with Paavo has a reassuring quality in a very unreassuring world. As always, the adventure continues in the back with recipes to inspire you to imitate one of Angie's safer hobbies. This is a Christmas gift to give yourself. ****

Still between jobs, rich, beautiful and nervous Angie Amalfi is going crazy as she wonders where her engagement party is going to be held and what it will be like. She put the whole affair in her mother's hands so that she can be in charge of creating her wedding. Her next door neighbor Stan is depressed because Angie is getting married to homicide detective Paavo Smith while he failed to get past being a friend in her mind. At a Greek restaurant, Stan sees waitress Hannah and is immediately smitten. They get to know one another, but he quickly concludes that Hannah fears a waiter who happens to be the father of her unborn child. When Hannah goes into labor, Stan takes her to the hospital and after the baby is born he brings them into his home. When the father is killed, evidence points towards Hannah as the prime suspect, but others had a motive to murder the waiter. Stan with Angie pushing her way at his side seeks the identity of the real culprit. COURTING DISASTER is a great romantic mystery in which the baby scenes provide immense humor (tissues to wipe the tears of laughter unless you are a new parent - then its sympathy pains). The romance between Angie and Paavo is growing stronger as each begins to accept the eccentricities of their future partner. Stan's desperate inquiries to prove his beloved innocent takes a spin when Angie tries to come to the rescue in an electrifying climax that will long be remembered. Courting the bestseller list, Joanne Pence has written a winner deserving an award nomination at the minimum. Harriet Klausner