cover image I Can't Make You Love Me, but I Can Make You Leave

I Can't Make You Love Me, but I Can Make You Leave

Dixie Cash, Morrow, $13.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-191014-2

In chapter one of the pseudonymous Cash's sidesplitting seventh Domestic Equalizers mystery (after 2010's Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue), the tour bus carrying flame-haired Darla Denman, the former "Queen of Country Music," and her entourage—including her ex-husband and still faithful manager, Big Bob Denman, and Roxie Jo, Big Bob's ambitious, much younger wife and Darla's opening act—breaks down outside Salt Lick, Tex. After hiring a couple of unlikely backup singers—beauticians, and down-home investigators Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin—Darla and company finally reach Midland for a benefit concert. When Roxie Jo is stabbed to death with a nail file in her dressing room, Darla confesses to the crime. Sure that Darla is innocent, Debbie Sue and Edwina set out to clear their favorite singer's name. Cash (sisters Pam Cumbie and Jeffery McClanahan) delivers one of her most entertaining cases yet. (Apr.)