The Really Dead Wives of New Jersey

Fledgling showrunner Eden Bennett faces challenges too real for reality TV in this breezy whodunit from Dahl (a pseudonym for Perfume and Pain author Anna Dorn). Eden is taking over the reins of the New Jersey–set megahit Garden State Goddesses as it enters its third season. To shake things up, she introduces an outsider to the show’s insular Sicilian American cast: her Californian cousin, Hope, who has married into Garden State’s central family, the Fontanas, after Eden introduced her to her now-husband. But Eden may have underestimated the passions that hippie-ish Hope would arouse in everyone from her sharp-tongued new sister-in-law, Carmela, to fan favorite Renee, a jewelry designer who’s recently been outed as bisexual and nurtures a crush on Hope. At first, the new conflicts make for great TV; then someone gets killed, forcing Eden to add “gumshoe” to her job description. Dahl, like her protagonist, proves to be an adept ringleader of this comedic circus, but readers will wish her players were slightly less stereotypical—for a novel so sympathetic to sapphic romance, for example, the lone gay male character is a surprisingly flat camp cartoon. Still, mystery fans with a taste for the absurd will have a frothy good time. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenberger Assoc. (Jan.)