An Affair to Dismember (The Matchmaker)
A madcap plot and zany characters propel Sax’s debut, which launches her Matchmaker series. Gladie Burger, fresh from Los Angeles, is apprenticing for her grandmother Zelda’s matchmaking business in tiny Cannes, California, when the man across the street dies. After meeting his abused wife and sleazy children, Gladie is convinced he was murdered, but handsome police chief Spencer Bolton disagrees since the coroner pronounced natural causes. When she learns the man was a bumbling thief with only one successful heist and his estranged gang members may have been looking for him, Gladie is even more convinced she’s right. She is somewhat distracted, however, by her grandmother’s  next-door neighbor, Arthur Holden, who says he’s happy to help her detect. Even when two of the dead man’s gang members turn up slain, Gladie isn’t deterred. She’s convinced the missing money from the successful heist is the key to the neighbor’s death. Fans of laugh-out-loud romantic suspense will enjoy this new author as she joins the ranks of Janet Evanovich, Katie MacAllister, and Jennifer Crusie. --Pat Henshaw