Ultraviolet (Jane Kelly Series #3)

Violet insists that she's completely innocent. After all, Roland was her absolute favorite ex-husband. And she was nowhere NEAR him at the time of the murder. Well, okay, technically she did meet him for a little pre-nup, bedroom tˆte-…-tˆte just before. And they did have a huge fight. And she did hit him with the tray. But just once. Honest. So could Jane just hurry up and prove her innocence? Sure. That should be easy. Let's just file this one under "12 Kinds of Crazy." But when Jane's boss, the temporarily sidelined Dwayne, is convinced Violet's telling the truth, well, there's nothing for Jane to do but take her lovable, misfit pug, Binky, and sniff out a few clues.

Everywhere Jane and The Binkster look, there's a suspect odder than the last, including two grown, very troubled kids, an ex-wife strung out on Botox and a current wife who's a cross between Donna Reed and a sex kitten-all of them eager to blame Roland's death on Violet. It doesn't help that Violet's story keeps changing faster than a celebrity's hair extensions. To make matters worse, Dwayne's convalescence is turning him into Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window," complete with binoculars, and he's convinced there is something very badgoing down in the private houses across Lakewood Bay, something that needs Jane and Binky's close attention. Faster than she can say, "I took criminology courses for this?", Jane is up to her eyeballs in lies, secrets, Extreme Botox, New Wave bands, truck-stop coffee kiosks (don't ask), very good scones, Junior League, wedding bandits, high school sociopaths, Plastic Pet Cemetery (don't ask, part II), a budding attraction to her boss, the Millionaire's Club, and someone who would kill to keep the past buried.

The deeper Jane digs, the less she wants to know. Every truth leads her deeper into danger, and soon, Jane wonders if her first official case might also be her last.and if the client she's been asked to clear just might be the coldest black widow of all.

For process server-turned-private investigator, Jane Kelly, weddings are murder. Usually that's a metaphor, but for newly minted P.I. Jane Kelly, it's fast becoming an all-too-accurate nightmare. Roland Hatchmere, plastic surgery magnate, has been found murdered just before his daughter's society wedding. The weapon is a wedding gift: a heavy, silver serving tray. The prime suspect is Roland's ex-wife #2: Violet "Ultraviolet" Purcell, she of the eccentric-bordering-on-insane Purcell clan.

Violet insists that she's completely innocent. After all, Roland was her absolute favorite ex-husband. And she was nowhere NEAR him at the time of the murder. Well, okay, technically she did meet him for a little pre-nup, bedroom t te- -t te just before. And they did have a huge fight. And she did hit him with the tray. But just once. Honest. So could Jane just hurry up and prove her innocence? Sure. That should be easy. Let's just file this one under "12 Kinds of Crazy." But when Jane's boss, the temporarily sidelined Dwayne, is convinced Violet's telling the truth, well, there's nothing for Jane to do but take her lovable, misfit pug, Binky, and sniff out a few clues.

Everywhere Jane and The Binkster look, there's a suspect odder than the last, including two grown, very troubled kids, an ex-wife strung out on Botox and a current wife who's a cross between Donna Reed and a sex kitten-all of them eager to blame Roland's death on Violet. It doesn't help that Violet's story keeps changing faster than a celebrity's hair extensions. To make matters worse, Dwayne's convalescence is turning him into Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window," complete with binoculars, and he's convinced there is something very badgoing down in the private houses across Lakewood Bay, something that needs Jane and Binky's close attention. Faster than she can say, "I took criminology courses for this?", Jane is up to her eyeballs in lies, secrets, Extreme Botox, New Wave bands, truck-stop coffee kiosks (don't ask), very good scones, Junior League, wedding bandits, high school sociopaths, Plastic Pet Cemetery (don't ask, part II), a budding attraction to her boss, the Millionaire's Club, and someone who would kill to keep the past buried.

The deeper Jane digs, the less she wants to know. Every truth leads her deeper into danger, and soon, Jane wonders if her first official case might also be her last.and if the client she's been asked to clear just might be the coldest black widow of all.

Publishers Weekly

Jane Kelly, Oregon's spunkiest PI-in-training, and her pug pal, Binky, sniff for clues in their rollicking third case (after 2006's Electric Blue). The newest Dwayne Durbin Investigations client, Violet Purcell, is ultra gorgeous, ultra rich and ultra desperate: her prints are all over the silver tray that whacked her "favorite ex-husband," Roland Hatchmere, on the morning of his daughter's wedding. Other suspects include Roland's estranged wife, Melinda, a manic Junior Leaguer; his first wife, Renee, a plastic surgery addict; and several members of the sleazy Columbia Millionaires' Club. Dwayne must depend on Jane to do the legwork while he's stuck at home, recovering from injuries and passing the time by spying on neighbors from his window. Soon he starts wondering what those Lake Chinook teens are really doing during their nocturnal parties at a house under construction, and sends Jane undercover to find out, adding another layer of mystery to the tangled plot. Jane's cool, reader-friendly attitude makes this funny new series a winner. (Oct.)

Nancy Bush lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she is working on the next novel in the Jane Kelly series.