DEAD IN THE DOORWAY – Diane Kelly
A House-Flipper Mystery, Book 2
St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN: 978-1-250-19745-0
March 2020
Cozy Mystery

Nashville, Tennessee – Present Day

House flipper Whitney Whitaker has just bought her newest house with her partner and cousin, Buck, and is anxious to get started. She arrives at the house early one morning and discovers the front door is blocked and she can't get in. Going in through the garage, she checks out why the door is blocked—and discovers a woman's dead body. Of course, it freaks Whitney out and she calls the police. As it happens, the same detective, Collin Flynn, who investigated the last time she found a dead body is the one assigned to the case. Whitney doesn't know who the dead lady is, but it soon turns out that she was the lady next door, Nelda Dolan. Circumstances make it appear that she might have tripped and fallen down the stairs, but why was she in the house? And while Whitney was freaking about the dead body, a young man appears on the stairs. He introduces himself as Dakota Walsh, the grandson of the woman who used to live in the house. Is he connected to the death?

Is it just a coincidence that dead bodies show up at houses that Whitney is trying to buy and renovate for a quick sale? Or does she attract murder and mayhem? The dead lady, Nelda, had no apparent reason to come into the (presumably) vacant house in the middle of the night. Did she see Dakota, who slipped in using a hidden key, and come over to confront him? A few things don't add up, which only deepens the mystery. Mainly, it is why Nelda's husband didn't miss his wife? The houses are in a cul-de-sac, where the neighbors, mostly ladies, all know each other. Did any of them hear anything unusual? It soon appears that something of value might be the source of why Nelda was in the home: a secret, prize-winning peach pie recipe. Whitney and Buck go through the house, but the pie recipe isn't to be found, and the late owner's sons claim they haven't seen it. Is that peach pie recipe worth killing someone for?

The title of Diane Kelly's latest House-Flipper Mystery , DEAD IN THE DOORWAY, pretty much says it all. Finding dead bodies is not something Whitney wants to have happen—and yet it happened to her at her first house flipping, which was the premise for the first book in the series, DEAD AS A DOOR KNOCKER. Whitney is single, with her beloved cat, Sawdust, her companion who goes just about everywhere with her. Despite Detective Flynn's warning that she needs to stay out of the investigation, Whitney is as curious as a cat as she tries to solve the crime. This leads her to get to know the ladies of the cul-de-sac. Are one of them the killer? Readers will sift through the clues just like Whitney and try to figure out who the killer is. Are you right?

A cute and entertaining mystery that is fun to read, don't miss DEAD IN THE DOORWAY.

Patti Fischer