Dusted to Death by Barbara Colley

Book Details
Dusted to Death by Barbara Colley
Hardcover, 256 pages
2010, Kensington
ISBN: 075822253X
Series: Book 8 in the Maid for a Day series

Synopsis
When a big Hollywood studio wants to use Bitsy Duke's gorgeous Victorian home for a movie shoot, she agrees, but only if Charlotte LaRue agrees to take care of her place during the shoot. The cast includes one of Hollywood's hottest ingenues, Angel Martinique. But as Charlotte quickly discovers, Angel is no saint - in fact, she's a complete diva. On the shoot, tensions run high, especially when Angel's friend Gavin is found dead in the star's dressing room. Charlotte senses there's more to Angel's story than meets the ye. But a little digging into her past turns up a lot more dirt than she bargained for - enough to put Charlotte in a killer's crosshairs if she doesn't watch her step...

Review
Dusted to Death is the 8th book in the Maid-for-a-Day series. This time around Charlotte is working with Hollywood-type people who have come to New Orleans to film a new movie. The lead actress's boyfriend is murdered and Charlotte sets out to find the killer.

Things end predictably when Charlotte was attacked by the killer and had to physically fight them off, as is the case with just about every title in this series. She's a 60-something woman who constantly prevails over much younger attackers and survives to clean another day. In an unexpected move, the lead detective begins taking Charlotte seriously as a would-be detective. I found this annoying. The police, including Charlotte's niece, constantly tell her not to get involved and yet this time, they're all but literally patting her on the back for meddling. The huge positive in Dusted to Death was that I had no idea who the killer was until they were finally revealed.

Barbara Colley writes a very good mystery, which seems to be the only reason I continue reading this series. I have no love for Charlotte. She is forever chiding others for their swearing, bringing up "the Lord" at seemingly random occasions and is strangely clueless about her would-be relationship with her neighbor, Louis. She's an older woman that I could not stand to be around. She grates on me to the point where I kind of wish one of the killers would just do her in already.

There were a lot of tiny personal annoyances and many situations that seemed highly unrealistic, but Dusted to Death does contain a compelling mystery. Perhaps the Maid-for-a-Day series would be a better fit for a generation or two older than myself.

Rating

Links

Barbara Colley's website