Stay At Home Dead

A normal shopping trip ends in murder, when "Deuce" Winters exits Cooper's Market with his daughter, Carly, and finds a dead body in the back of the minivan. Many of the town's population in Rose Pedal, Texas had trouble accepting Deuce as a house dad and spouse to Julianne, a powerful attorney and partner with a distinguished law firm. However, murder would just make a host of tongues wag even faster because of the deceased's identity. Decades ago, Benny Barnes ruined Deuce's football aspirations at Texas A & M and stole his high school girlfriend. Now, these folks will believe Deuce's revenge landed Benny dead; those old items combined with recent fact that Benny was bringing a lawsuit against Deuce, and this suit was something that most of the town knew about before Benny died. Unfortunately, for Deuce, he did not find out about it until after Benny's death, but the lawsuit dies with Benny—only to be replaced with wrongful death case. However, when Benny's widow telephones and asks to see Deuce, he discovers more about Benny's life post high school. From his recent firing and his new business plans to make competition for one the newest, busiest places in their town to his unhappy marriage, Deuce starts to put together a rather large suspect list. All of these folks knew of the old ill will that existed between Benny and Deuce, but why would they want to frame Deuce? My Take: I recommend Jeffrey Allen's STAY AT HOME DEAD. The body arrives on page one, putting Deuce Winter on a slow Texas track to solve the crime to clear his name. Nonetheless, the more he tries to help himself, the higher he lands on the police watch list and the more trouble has an easier time of finding him. This contemporary role reversal adds to the cozy of this cozy, and Deuce Winter's next mystery arrives in October 2012! ***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***