In Jaffarian's bodacious fourth mystery to feature bighearted, plus-sized Odelia Grey (after 2008's Thugs and Kisses
), Odelia's distraught friend, Lillian Ramsey, asks the paralegal's help in proving her famous cosmetic surgeon son, Brian Eddy, is not the Blond Bomber, a serial killer who for the past year has been plaguing Southern California. Odelia—with the aid of her wheelchair-bound husband, Greg Stevens, and the cooperation of her attorney boss, Mike Steele—discovers that both Brian and his celebrity interior designer wife, Jane Sharp, appear to be connected to the four female victims, each of whom had the word whore
printed on her torso. The neatly constructed plot begins zigzagging around tough guy Gordon Harper, whose ex-wife, ex-stripper Crystal Lee, was one of the Bomber's victims. Leavened with lively humor, the action builds to a wickedly satisfying windup. (Feb.)
