Dead by Any Other Name: A Janet’s Planet Mystery

At the start of Stuart’s diverting second Janet’s Planet mystery set in the Hudson Valley (after 2010’s To the Manor Dead), Janet Petrocelli receives a call from Natasha Wolfson, a local singer trying to raise cash to go to L.A., about selling some of her jewelry to Janet’s second-hand shop. Janet is happy to oblige, but Natasha strikes her as “really desperate, scared, and probably high.” When she learns that Natasha later took a fatal fall at Devil’s Kitchen, one of the most treacherous climbs in the Catskills, she suspects the singer’s death was no accident. Janet, a former psychologist, embarks on a wild goose chase that involves bestselling authors, a prostitution ring, and a mysterious eastern European. Readers who are familiar with upstate New York’s colorful cultures will surely get a kick out of Janet’s wry assessments of the area’s zany characters and picturesque places. (Oct.)