Blackbird Sisters Mysteries Series by Nancy Martin
Blackbird Sisters Mysteries #1
Blackbird Sisters Mysteries #2
Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds
Nancy Martin
Giving up my socialite life to get a real job writing a society column for a Philadelphia paper hasn't worked out as well as I hoped. The developers still want to turn the Blackbird estate into an outlet mall. My eccentric sisters are convinced I need a dog, a baby or a keeper. And now I'm falling hard for a Jersey tough guy with criminal connections. On top of my family feuding, one of the city's nouveau riche has just been murdered, and I could be a prime suspect. What would Emily Post do?
When a high society jewel thief winds up drowned at the bottom of a pool with a tacky garden gnome tied to her ankles, Nora must swing into action to save her old flame, Flan Cooper, from a hasty murder charge. A politically ambitious millionaire with hushed up secrets, a dotty grand dame with a penchant for polo teams, and a cat fancier who keeps a gun with his silver tea set all steer suspicion onto Nora herself. It's enough to make the bluebloods turn pale! Nora must find the killer on her own or risk trading her grandmother's couture for an orange jumpsuit. All in an ex-débutante's day's work, Nora. All in a day's work.
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Blackbird Sisters Mysteries #4
Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die
Nancy Martin
You could say my sisters and I are hot-blooded bluebloods with a flair for fashion—and for solving crimes. But things have NOT been going well for us Blackbirds: Emma has busted out of a very exclusive clinic. Libby’s hormones are in overdrive from selling paraphernalia for Potions and Passions, a company that promises its customers full satisfaction. And I’m still dating mobster’s son Mick Abruzzo, which keeps me in a permanent tizzy. At least, nobody in my vicinity has been knocked off lately. Oops—looks like I spoke too soon…
A TEMPEST IN A C-CUP
Nora’s next journalistic assignment: the unveiling of the most miraculous bra in fashion history. But before Nora can hand in her uplifting story, her boss is found shot execution-style and trussed up in expensive panty hose—an Abruzzo family trademark. Now Nora must find the killer before her innocent lover takes the rap. That means shadowing the most glamorous suspects in Philadelphia—including a bad-boy designer, a former child star, a high-strung ad exec, and a pair of luscious twin models. Though Nora’s accustomed to upper-crust murder, cross your fingers for the Blackbird sisters, because this time, high society has never seemed so low-down dirty.
**From Publishers Weekly
The three high-flying Blackbird sisters make their hardcover debut in their fourth mystery (after 2004's Some Like It Lethal), a blend of fashion-forward romance and witty suspense. When not assisting Kitty Keough, a Philadelphia society columnist, former debutante Nora Blackbird strives to save the family farm after the sisters' parents "spent our trust funds faster than drunken lottery winners could buy a fleet of Cadillacs." Meanwhile, wild baby sis, Emma, escapes rehab with a media cowboy, and fertile sis, Libby, keeps popping out babies. Assigned to cover the Philly launch for Brinker Holt's revolutionary Brinker Bra ("No need for straps or uncomfortable wires"), Nora recalls Brinker was the creepy preppie who once assaulted Emma and tortured other kids for fun. When Kitty, whom Brinker barred from the show, turns up dead on Nora's doorstep, Nora's lover, Michael Abruzzo, becomes the primary suspect due to his mob connections. Nora, Libby and ace crime reporter Richard D'eath's efforts to investigate more likely suspects lead to a madcap dénouement just in time for Nora's annual New Year's Eve bash and a sparkling but bittersweet surprise. Martin's wicked tongue-in-cheek satire will appeal to fans of Jennifer Crusie, who provides a blurb, and Janet Evanovich.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Nora Blackbird is no singing star, but she knows how to act like a diva, complete with the designer clothes and the little dog in her arms. But Nora is one thing most divas are not: she is broke. Determined to save the family manse outside Philadelphia, frittered away by her parents, Nora is forced (shudder) to get a job. As an assistant for fashion-writer Kitty Keough, she does grunt work for little recognition--such as covering the unveiling of the hot new "Brinker bra." After fighting the crowds for a seat, Nora is shocked to find that her sister Emma, supposedly in rehab, is the top bra model. She is even more shocked to return home and find her boss, Kitty, dead on her doorstep. It's perhaps not quite so shocking to learn that her "mobbed-up" boyfriend is the prime suspect. This third in the Blackbird Sisters series (and first to appear in hardcover) is a laugh-out-loud comic mystery as outrageous as a pink chinchilla coat. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Blackbird Sisters Mysteries #10
A Little Night Murder
Nancy Martin
Murder under the stars... Nora Blackbird - pregnant at last! - is spending summer afternoons wallowing in the Bucks County pool of her best friend, Lexie Paine, who has just been released from prison. At night, Nora is covering Philadelphia's high-society events for the local newspaper. And this time she doesn't have to look far for a good story. Next door, a Broadway show is in rehearsal at the estate of Toodles Tuttle, the long-deceased but ever-legendary composer. Reigning over the estate is Toodles's diva widow, Boom Boom. The demanding old broad still rules with an iron fist, and considering the chorus line of enemies she's racked up over the years, her death has been a hotly anticipated event. So imagine everyone's dismay when it's her beloved daughter, Jenny, who drops dead - from a cause that is anything but natural - just as the lights are set to go on for the lucrative new Toodles musical. Yet murder is only an overture to the drama to come.... Nora's sister Libby, a soon-to-be-grandmother, has gotten herself into a sticky situation, wooed by both a lowly bug exterminator and a cheesecake-loving Broadway impresario. Edgy sister Emma has a dangerous new boyfriend who may jeopardize her show-jumping exploits. And the love of Nora's life, Mick Abruzzo, has been desperate to prevent Nora from meeting the most notorious member of his mobbed-up family - his mother. Now Nora has to deal with the bump-and-grind of her personal life, and also bring the curtain down on a daring killer - before he forces her to exit stage left, permanently.
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