Guaranteed to Bleed: The Country Club Murders

Set in the fall of 1974, Mulhern’s lively, witty sequel to The Deep End finds Kansas City, Mo., socialite Ellison Russell reluctantly attending a high school football game (“Personally, I’d rather be audited by the IRS than sit through a game”). But as a loyal mom, she’s there to support Grace, her cheerleader daughter. When Ellison drops her lipstick, she makes the mistake of going to look for it under the stands. There she stumbles on a dying teenage boy covered in blood, who asks that she tell his girlfriend that he loves her. Ellison determines to learn the girlfriend’s identity and deliver the message, plus find the boy’s killer, but then she discovers that Grace is missing. If that’s not enough for one day, an unknown man turns up shot to death in her garden. Cozy fans will eagerly await Ellison’s further adventures. (Oct.)