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Book Review of Here Comes the Body (Catering Hall, Bk 1)

Here Comes the Body (Catering Hall, Bk 1)
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Helpful Score: 2


Here Comes the Body is the debut of the A Catering Hall Mystery series set in Astoria, NY and featuring Mia Carina, the daughter of reputed mobster Ravello Carina. A disastrous marriage to adulterer, Adam Grosso has ended with a boat crash in Palm Springs with Adam's body never being recovered and fingers pointing at Mia and her "Family" as having organized his disappearance. Leaving her position in a high end leather shop, Mia returns home to Astoria moving in with her grandmother Elisabetta and taking a job assisting her father at the Belle View Manor and Catering Hall.

Ravello had been working for the Boldano family making sure that gamblers weren't walking away from their debts, but after several stints at Rikers he's determined to follow the straight and narrow and make a legitimate go at running the catering hall. Her first big night has Mia overseeing an anniversary party in the downstairs ballroom and a raucous batchelor party upstairs. Things seem to be going well until a body is found in the pop up cake, and it's not the stripper that was supposed to be jumping out. Making matters worse, the dead woman had accosted Ravello the day before demanding money for a supposed earlier date, and tucked in next to her body is a check written by Ravello for a million dollars.

Determined to prove her Dad's innocence, Mia sets out to track down the real killer and prove to Detective Pete Dianopolis, that for once her family was not connected to a murder. Teaming up with catering hall employees, her ex boyfriend and her grandmother's "Army" of elderly neighbors, Mia quickly finds herself mixed up in a prostitution ring, bullying real estate deals and attacks by a rival Mob family.

A fast paced plot and laugh out loud moments with a zany cast of characters from page one this series is sure to be a "hit". I for one can't wait to see what happens next!