Funny as a Dead Relative: A Kimmey Kruse Mystery

Cajun cookery, colorful East Texas patois, dark family secrets and homicide provide material for pint-sized Texas stand-up comic Kimmey Kruse in her second appearance. During a family reunion in Port Arthur, Kimmey's black-sheep cousin Leticia dies from an anaphylactic reaction to a wasp sting. While trying to convince the local police that Leticia may have been murdered, Kimmey wrestles with her overactive libido, stirred by Leticia's son, Will, a Texas-sized hunk and her kissin' cousin-second or third, once or twice removed. Kimmey's former love interest (in Funny As A Dead Comic), Chicago homicide cop Sal Pucci, arrives uninvited, having been alerted by Kimmey's best friend Phoebe. Building on the spicy aroma of outdoor cooking and Kimmey's powerful, conflicting attaction to both Will and Sal, the tale bounces along to another murder and the arrival of a hurricane. That crimes eventually get solved seems almost incidental to the exploration of various appetites, local oil and shrimping history, the picturesque landscapes (tar-paper shacks and rusted-out cars) and folksy family relationships. (Oct.)