At the start of Buzzelli's well-crafted third Emily Kincaid cozy (after 2009's Dead Floating Lovers
), the intrepid reporter discovers a dead woman under a pine tree near an abandoned logging town 15 days before the world's supposed to end on October 27, at least according to the End Timer cult that's causing a stir in Leetsville, Mich. Strangled by a rope similar to those worn by cult members, Marjory Otis was a shaman who'd come to Leetsville to tend to the crowd if the world didn't end. After Emily's policewoman friend, Deputy Dolly Wakowski, joins the End Timers, Emily once again turns amateur sleuth, encouraged by her newspaper editor, Bill Corcoran, among others, to help catch a killer and solve a cold case involving Marjory's past. Buzzelli's mix of mystery and humor doesn't include supernatural shenanigans like Charlaine Harris's Southern vampire series, but it does provide some sharp prose and spirited characterizations. (May)
