An Affair to Dismember

October 8, 2012
Sax’s series debut mashes mystery with romantic comedy but is more incomprehensible than funny. Itinerant job-hopper Gladie Burger has come to her grandmother’s small Southern California town to reluctantly take over the family matchmaking business. When a neighbor across the street is found dead, the death is ruled an accident by the police, but the deceased’s family members implausibly insist that inexperienced matchmaker Gladie discover the real cause of death. As Gladie incompetently investigates, unconvincing candidates for romantic hero wander past: womanizing police chief Spencer Bolton, who creepily invades Gladie’s bed uninvited while she is asleep, and mysterious neighbor and suspected murderer Arthur Holden. Even readers who can put up with sexism disguised as comedic characterization (“ ‘Correction, Legs,’ he said, eyeing my lower half, on display in my dress. ‘I can call you whatever I want’ ”) will find little appeal in the senseless plot. Agent: Alex Glass, Trident Media Group.

September 15, 2012
A madcap plot and zany characters propel Sax's debut, which launches her Matchmaker series. Gladie Burger, fresh from Los Angeles, is apprenticing for her grandmother Zelda's matchmaking business in tiny Cannes, California, when the man across the street dies. After meeting his abused wife and sleazy children, Gladie is convinced he was murdered, but handsome police chief Spencer Bolton disagrees since the coroner pronounced natural causes. When she learns the man was a bumbling thief with only one successful heist and his estranged gang members may have been looking for him, Gladie is even more convinced she's right. She is somewhat distracted, however, by her grandmother's next-door neighbor, Arthur Holden, who says he's happy to help her detect. Even when two of the dead man's gang members turn up slain, Gladie isn't deterred. She's convinced the missing money from the successful heist is the key to the neighbor's death. Fans of laugh-out-loud romantic suspense will enjoy this new author as she joins the ranks of Janet Evanovich, Katie MacAllister, and Jennifer Crusie.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)