Mama Gets Hitched

May 1, 2010
Wedding bells and funeral bells in cow country Florida.

It's no fun for Mace Bauer, who works at a wildlife park, and her proper sisters Maddie and Marty to prepare for their Mama's fifth wedding, this one to New York importer Salvatore Provenza. Sure, Sal's cousin by marriage C'ndee Ciancio is helping with the wedding plans, but she's loud-mouthed and pushy, and they'd rather be working with the caterer who was stabbed to death less than a week before the wedding. Moreover, Mace's on-and-off relationship with handsome police detective Carlos Martinez is bound to be strained once more by her habit of investigating murders. The run-up to the nuptials features some eye-popping revelations. C'ndee's hunky Ivy League–educated nephew Christopher is connected to a mysterious Mafia crime family, and C'ndee has been having affairs with both a violent redneck and the caterer. While Mace is pursued by Christopher, who claims his family's misdeeds have nothing to do with him, Carlos seems to be spending an awful lot of time with a leather-clad biker chick. Mace's insatiable curiosity gets her deeper into trouble as she tries to balance her love life with her crime-solving and pull off Mama's Southern Belle wedding.

Not as amusing as Mama Rides Shotgun (2009, etc.), but bound to give tourists a look at a Florida that is fast being paved out of existence.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2010
Mace Bauers mother is getting ever closer to her fifth marriage. In fact, the preparations have entered the home stretch for her Gone with the Windthemed wedding. Mace and her sisters, Marty and Maddie, really dont want to appear in crinolines and carry parasols, but if it makes Mama happy . . . . The whole celebration seems to be in serious jeopardy, however, when the caterer is murdered just a week before the event. It is up to Mace and her sometime boyfriend, policeman Carlos, to figure out whos to blame. Suspects include a wedding planner, Cndee, and her gorgeous nephew, Anthony. Like the bridegroom, Salvatore Provenza, Cndee and Anthony are East Coast Yankees. Even worse, Anthony may have links to the Mafia. In between gown fittings, Maces increasingly dangerous investigations include visits to a fish camp in the swamps. Once again Sharp has presented a humorous look at life in the interior of Florida. Heres hoping her way of life survives this latter-day Yankee invasion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

May 10, 2010
At the start of Sharp's charming third Mace Bauer mystery (after 2009's Mama Rides Shotgun), Mace's 62-year-old Mama is looking forward to marrying husband number five, Sal Provenza, a Bronx native. Alas, Sal's family tagalongs are causing quite a stir in tiny Himmarshee, Fla., in particular C'ndee Ciancio, Sal's brassy, hot-tempered cousin-in-law, who's driving Mama crazy with her efforts to help plan the wedding. When the murder of caterer Ronnie Hodges coincides with the arrival of C'ndee's hunky nephew, Tony, Mace worries that some of Sal's kin may have Mafia ties. Tony's interest in Mace forces her to make a decision about her on-again/off-again relationship with handsome local cop Carlos Martinez, even as Mace assists Carlos in tracking down leads that totally alter their original assessment of the motive for Ronnie's murder. Sibling rivalry, steamy romance, a surprising killer, and plenty of catfish and hush puppies make this Southern cozy a winner.