All Dressed Up

YA author Gagnon (#famous) makes her adult debut with a clever mystery. New Yorker Becca Wilson isn’t sure her marriage can survive after her husband, Blake, has an affair, but she’s willing to try to forgive him after he surprises her with a stay at an upstate mansion hotel hosting eight guests for a murder mystery weekend with a Roaring Twenties theme. Blake is asked to adopt the guise of Reid A. Dailey, a fictional newspaper heir, while Becca is assigned the role of ingenue Debbie Taunte. At first, she enjoys the lavish setting, campy scenario, and chance to wear her best clothes. But the discovery of the “victim”—chanteuse Ida Crooner’s dramatically staged corpse—isn’t enough to distract her from the pain of Blake’s infidelity, and her unease grows when the young woman pretending to be Crooner’s maid vanishes without explanation. Gagnon smoothly integrates the Wilsons’ marital woes with the present-day mystery and the 1920s puzzle, which is illuminated by handouts from the event’s organizers scattered throughout the text. Becca’s sardonic first-person narration sparkles. Lovers of both golden age and contemporary whodunits will have fun. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (Sept.)