Dawn of the Deb: A Debutante Detective Mystery

In Moore’s scattershot fourth cozy starring Dainty Prescott (after 2013’s Deb on Air—Live at Five), the owner of the Debutante Detective Agency and substitute anchor on WBFD-TV regrets having taken a large retainer from Avery Marshall, “one of Fort Worth’s richest oil barons,” and spending it all before learning what Avery hired her for—which is to prepare his ungainly stepdaughter, Dawn, for a forthcoming debutante ball. Avery has already booked a friend’s lodge in west Texas for a spa weekend so Dainty and her wild sister, Teensy, can “groom Dawn on the finer points of etiquette.” Two of Dainty’s close friends join the sisters and Dawn at the remote spa, where they soon come under the first of many attacks. When not dodging inept assassins, Dainty manages to find never-ending family drama with Teensy, her “blue-blood, blue-haired” grandmother, and her “undiagnosed alcoholic, out-of-touch” father. Readers should be prepared for a lot of slapstick humor, some of it strained. (Sept.)