Secondhand Stiff: An Odelia Grey Mystery

In Jafarian’s witty and well-plotted eighth Odelia Grey mystery (after 2012’s Hide & Snoop), paralegal Odelia, who has a reputation as a “corpse magnet,” and her wheelchair-bound husband, Greg Stevens, host a family Thanksgiving at their Southern California home. The guests include both of their mothers and Greg’s “tough cookie” second cousin, Ina Bruce, but not Ina’s husband, Tom Bruce, “a slick talking low-life” Ina married right out of high school. The Monday after Thanksgiving, at the insistence of Odelia’s pushy mother, Grace Littlejohn, Odelia and other family members attend an auction at a storage facility, where a unit whose contents are on the block turns out to contain the body of someone they know—Tom. Grace proves to be as much a hindrance as a help in Odelia’s efforts to find out who shot Tom dead. Cozy fans should be prepared for some coarse language. Agent: Whitney Lee, Fielding Agency. (Dec.)