Review of "Death By Smoothie: A Jaine Austen Mystery" by Laura Levine

In this 19th 'Jaine Austen Mystery,' the amateur sleuth investigates a murder in the theatre. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

Jaine Austen is an amateur sleuth and aspiring writer whose best known work so far is the slogan 'In a Rush to Flush? Call Toiletmasters!' So Jaine is thrilled when her friend Lance Venable, whose new boyfriend Aidan is an actor, recommends her for a theatre job.



Jaine is offered $5,000 to spruce up the script for a Los Angeles musical called 'I Married a Zombie,' based on an old sitcom. 'I Married a Zombie' is being financed by a lottery winner named David, a show biz novice who's the writer, director, producer, and leading man. David plays a character named Brad, who falls in love with and marries a beautiful zombie.



David's girlfriend Becca is co-producing......



.....and when Jaine arrives at the theatre, the couple are auditioning women for the role of Cryptessa - the zombie girl.



David blows off a talented actress to hire an adorable siren named Misty, who has no talent, doesn't remember the simplest lines, and sings terribly. However David is mesmerized by Misty, and the girl soon has David wrapped around her little finger.



Misty is rude, texts during rehearsals, can't separate stage directions from dialog (Smiling coyly, Do you come here often?) and - though Jaine rewrites Misty's dialog to include only short sentences and easy words - Misty is tanking the production. Even worse from Jaine's point of view, Misty is a vegan, and David provides only gluten-free, fat-free, taste-free rock hard muffins for snacks, and insists on ordering lunch from The Happy Veggie.



Aside from David, no one can stand Misty, and the actress is murdered with a poisoned smoothie. Lance Venable's boyfriend Aidan - who brought Misty the smoothie from the fridge - is a prime suspect, and Lance begs Jaine to clear Aidan's name.



Jaine questions people involved in the production to try to suss out the killer.



That's the investigation part of this cozy mystery, which is an uproarious romp by TV comedy writer Laura Levine.

Jaine has a lot going on besides her theatre work. Jaine's best friend Kandi inveigles her into attending a Bachelor Auction luncheon, where Jaine has no intention of bidding.



However, when Jaine signals a waiter for her chocolate mousse cake, she hears "Sold for $600 to the woman with a ketchup stain on her her sleeve!"....who of course, is Jaine. The date, supposedly with a rich eligible bachelor, turns out to be the date from hell.



On the home front, Jaine buys her mischievous cat Prozac a harness, to go outside. Prozac turns up her nose, and Jaine observes, "I think it's fair to say that Captain Ahab had an easier time duking it out with Moby Dick than I had trying to wrestle Prozac into her cat harness." And after all that, Prozac causes all manner of trouble during walks.



To top things off, Jaine's parents, who are retired to Tampa Vistas, send her periodic emails. Tampa Vistas is having its annual talent show, and Jaine's father (User name: DaddyO) plans to tap dance with an iguana on his head.....while Jaine's mother (User name: Shoptillyoudrop) is aghast at the idea. These emails are laugh out loud funny.



This is the first cozy mystery I've read by Laura Levine and I'll be looking out for more.

Rating: 3.5 stars