cover image The Mangler of Malibu Canyon

The Mangler of Malibu Canyon

Jennifer Colt, . . Broadway, $11.95 (367pp) ISBN 978-0-7679-2012-4

After kicking some hijackers' butts on a plane arriving at LAX, PI twin sisters Kerry and Terry McAfee get on their pink Harley, zip onto the Pacific Coast Highway and cruise into Malibu for their second crime-solving romp (after 2005's The Butcher of Beverly Hills ). Their wealthy great-aunt, Reba, and her middle-aged Ding Dong–addicted son, Robert, who's missing from a posh rehab facility, are in big trouble. After a headless corpse turns up rolled in a rug stashed in Reba's new Malibu digs and Robert surfaces with the matching head, both relatives are arrested and hustled off to jail. In their search for the real killer, the sleuthing sisters dodge a deadly over-the-hill TV actress, mobsters, New Age chicanery, far-out cosmic connections and a cheesy film producer. If the slaphappy plot defies believability, Kerry (the boy-crazy twin addicted to law enforcement types with big guns) and Terry (the twin who goes for leggy ladies) provide plenty of laughs. (June)