Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Beware False Profits by Emilie Richards. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
A Ministry is Murder Mystery with Aggie Sloan-Wilcox
Berkley Prime Crime (Mass market paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-425-21868-6 (0425218686)
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-21868-6 (9780425218686)
Publication Date: November 2007
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): There's no rest for the weary Aggie Sloan-Wilcox and her minister husband, who were praying for a relaxing weekend until a member of their flock went missing.
Joe Wagner, president of Emerald Springs's food bank, disappears, and Aggie discovers his secret life-as a female impersonator. Meanwhile, the murder of the mayor's wife at the annual food bank fundraiser puts Joe on top of the suspect list. If Aggie doesn't get to the bottom of things fast, she'll be leading a choir singing the blues.
Review: Emilie Richards' third amusing mystery in the Ministry is Murder series, Beware False Profits, has amateur sleuth Aggie Sloan-Wilcox taking a break from the hard work of real life to look into the circumstances surrounding the murder of the mayor's wife.
Aggie and her minister husband Ed have been helping to organize a magnificent May Day celebration at the local fair grounds. The beneficiary of the festivities is a charitable organization, Helping Hands, which supplies food to those in need. Before the event, Joe Wagner, the director of Helping Hands, leaves Ohio for his monthly trip to New York, supposedly to attend a meeting of the national committee. Aggie and Ed, having agreed they need a rest from the hubbub of the final planning of the celebration, decide to spend a weekend in New York. There, purely by accident, they find Joe working in the Pussycat Club as a female impersonator – his escape from a not too perfect marriage and his mission to discover the truth about himself and his life in Ohio. Aggie and Joe agree to keep Joe’s secret. Back home, the May Day celebration begins without Joe as the fortune teller; Aggie’s mother fills in for him. She predicts that Hazel, Mayor Brown’s wife, would have a long and prosperous life. Soon thereafter, Hazel drops dead at the fair grounds. Aggie immediately becomes involved, much to the dismay of Ed and Detective Roussos, after she finds out that Hazel had been murdered. When Detective Roussos asked her why she feels she must help in solving a police crime, she tells him she is not investigating the murder, she’s just helping to prove that Mayor Brown didn’t commit the murder. She thinks that surely he could understand the difference.
Emilie Richards has created a truly delightful and in many ways original character in Aggie Sloan-Wilcox. Add in scandal, deception, and murder (to name but three) in a small "homey" town in mid-America and the result is the perfect combination for a humorous mystery. Beware False Profits will certainly be praised (sorry, couldn't resist) by all.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Beware False Profits and to Book Trends for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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