A Teeny Bit of Trouble

In West’s madcap second novel featuring Charleston, S.C., baker Teeny Templeton (after 2011’s Gone with a Handsomer Man), Teeny is certain—well, almost certain—she witnessed the murder of Barb Philpot, an old high school frenemy. Barb’s body disappears, surfacing much later in the guise of a suicide victim. Meanwhile, Barb’s now motherless 10-year-old daughter might be the long-lost offspring of Coop O’Malley, who’s currently engaged to, that’s right, Teeny. Only a DNA test will tell what Coop’s been keeping secret. As for the killer, could Barb’s less than broken-up widower, pharmacist Lester Philpot, have been the man in the Bill Clinton mask Teeny saw strangle Barb? Or maybe it was Lester’s shifty brother, who may or may not be involved in illegal human organ harvesting? The plot continues to thicken as West tosses one red herring after another into an already deliciously roiling stew of blind alleys. Author tour. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (Apr.)