It's Murder Going Home: A Charlie Greene Mystery

L.A.-based literary agent and single mother Charlie Green is used to a hectic life, but not even she could navigate the chaos that she and her 16-year-old daughter, Libby, step into when they reluctantly return to Boulder, Colo., to care for her ailing mother, Edwina. This novel, Charlie's fourth appearance (after Murder in a Hot Flash), is quickly lost in an avalanche of subplots, red herrings, psychic phenomena and far too many bizarre characters. Edwina, a biology professor, annoyed her neighbors when she turned the retired laboratory rats she kept in the basement loose in the neighborhood. But are the neighbors angry enough to break into her house, steal her computer disks, send over a poisoned casserole and accuse her of killing her next-door neighbor's husband? Three seemingly unrelated murders are clustered near Edwina's home and, in no time at all, a manipulative realtor, a Hollywood megastar (Charlie's former lover), an aspiring novelist and assorted vagrants are all vying for Charlie's investigative attention. Prowling mountain lions and uncontrolled brush fires make this dysfunctional group understandably edgy. Not even Charlie's upbeat wit and promising romance with the police detective in charge (a former high-school nerd) can save this fragmented and disjointed story. As she herself says: ""This town and this neighborhood have always been screwy, but things have gotten out of hand here."" Precisely. (Dec.)