Book Review: A Streetcar Named Expire

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Streetcar Named Expire     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Mary Daheim
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character   Cozy
Series: Hillside Manor Bed & Breakfast # 16
Avon, Jan 2001, $6.50, 311 pp.

In the past decade, Judith McMonigle Flynn, proud owner of the bustling Hillside Manor Bed and Breakfast, seemingly has stumbled on more dead bodies than many coroners have. Judith reluctantly accompanies her cousin Rennie on a death tour that the latter won with the highest bid during a church auction. Judith becomes outraged to learn her B&B is part of the tour

The tour stops at the dumpy Alhambra Arms where Judith peaks into a room only to spot the corpse of a woman on the bed. Judith becomes a media sensation just like she ha last many times before. Month ago the crew found the remains of a decades-old person walled up in one of the apartments. Judith believes there is a connection between the two deaths and begins to investigate, not yet aware that any revelation could make her corpse number three.

The "Bed and Breakfast Mystery" series is like a bag of potato chips as readers can't read just one. Each time Mary Daheim releases a new entry, fans seem propelled to go back and reread the previous novels just to remember what trouble Judith manages to encounter. A STREETCAR NAMED EXPIRE is a well-done amateur sleuth novel filled with a plethora of suspects so that the audience struggles with identifying the villain. Cozies should always be this delightful.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner