cover image Curl Up and Die: A Stella the Stargazer Mystery

Curl Up and Die: A Stella the Stargazer Mystery

Christine T. Jorgensen. Walker & Company, $21.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-3288-0

This breezy mystery, the third in the Stella the Stargazer series (A Love to Die For; You Bet Your Life), gets off to a quick start when Stella (formerly Jane Austin Smith, accountant), narrowly escapes being crushed by a white van. Witty, smart and utterly brazen, Stella writes an enormously popular astrological column for a Denver newspaper and has been receiving threatening letters. But, after her close call, she quickly puts aside her anxieties to help her best friend, Meredith Spenser, who is charged with the murder of her lover, Tony DeAngelo. Tony, owner of an upscale beauty parlor and spa, was electrocuted while having a foot bath--and a distraught Meredith was seen holding the cord. On the run after surviving yet another attempt on her life, Stella still manages to interrogate (and antagonize) a host of suspects in Tony's murder, and, while ferreting out pertinent information, takes comfort from a constant diet of junk food and the tiny presence of her pet chameleon, Fluffy. Her psychic trances, an integral part of the story, often point her in the wrong direction, but Stella proves herself a feisty sleuth. Because she's more blundering than brilliant, Stella often has cause to thank her lucky stars for seeing her through her hair-raising adventures. (Jan.)