Dial Emmy for Murder by Eileen Davidson

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Alexis Peterson is back and so is another dead body.

Recently, the popular daytime actress switched soap operas and now stars on “The Bare and the Brazen”. She had been one of the stars of “The Yearning Tide”, but when her fellow co-stars are so quick to believe she was capable of murder, she knew she couldn’t continue on the show.

She agrees to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmy Awards, but once she is onstage, her co-presenter falls down on her head or should I say he’s hanging over head. Very much dead and dripping blood all over Alexis.

Alexis’ new boyfriend Detective Frank Jakes is on the job investigating the murder. He quickly clears Alexis of any suspicion of murder, but holds everyone else in the room for questioning and declares they are all suspects. When Jakes discovers several other young actors, all of them with soap opera connections, were murdered in the same manner, he asks Alexis for her assistance in this investigation.

The detective receives quite a bit of flack from his superiors about involving a civilian in a murder investigation, but he doesn’t care. He insists Alexis be part of this. Meanwhile, Alexis is being followed by an irate ex-husband, who is desperate to see their daughter. She fears he doesn’t have their daughter’s best interests at heart and intends to protect her child at all costs.

When Alexis’ own life is in danger, she doesn’t know which is worse – investigating a murder or dealing with an ex-husband.

This is the second book in Eileen Davidson’s “A Soap Opera Mystery” series. Overall, I really enjoyed reading these books, although the first one was my favorite.

I tend to think these books are written as spoofs more than a traditional cozy mystery. As a soap opera watcher myself, I’m familiar with Ms. Davidson’s work on Days of Our Lives and I see traits of her character from that show in this book. Otherwise, I’d have a hard time believing a detective would purposely involve a civilian, a woman he supposedly loved no less, take such an active part in a murder investigation. Not to mention that he compromised evidence and pretty much seemed incompetent at his job, to me. LOL

“Dial Emmy for Murder” really is a funny, quick read and I enjoyed it. I intend to read the next one, which, from the excerpt after this book, takes place around Halloween. This should really be fun.

For reading challenge: Cozy Mystery