A Room with a Pew

If you haven't read this series yet you are missing out on some wild adventures. I'm familiar with this author but not this particular series. Oh my gosh I laughed so much while reading this book. Lucille and Flo are such funny characters that the reader will wish they were hanging out with them. Between all the patron saints and the infamous Mediterranean-Italian diet, I could not stop laughing. The mystery itself involves the death of cousin Louis and involves possible mob connections,money laundering, gambling and of course, The Napoleon Room.
Don't miss out on this epic adventure!
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Book four in the Lucille Mystery Series continues with the laughs in this cute cozy series that features a mature Italian-American woman and her extended family and friends.  Lucille follows in the footsteps of her namesake, Lucille Ball, and teams up with her Ethel, best buddy Flo, to get into all sorts of crazy adventures, all with the goal of solving a murder mystery.

The folksy narrative voice is from Lucille's perspective (3rd person limited narration), and the humor comes mainly from her sarcastic tone, silent prayers to saints, eternal dieting attempts, and a penchant for stealing vehicles of all shapes and sizes.  Don't take any of it seriously, despite the author putting in one medical problem, here and there, specific to mature readers.

A Room with a Pew (the title is cute but it has very little to do with the story) begins on Thanksgiving day with Lucille catering the holiday dinner for her family and friends.  Lucille is proud of her ability to handle the busy holiday:

"...she may not be one of them executive types she read about in magazines all the time who wear pantsuits to work and order their lunch from fancy restaurants, but she knew how to roast a turkey and she knew how to care for her family."

She is also proud of her ability to sort out criminals and crimes, despite always landing in a heap of trouble with her friend Flo.  The bad guys in this book are particularly bad, and the ladies have some very close scrapes to escape from.  There are family problems to deal with along the way, of course, in her working class family.

The series is a light read not just because of the humor.  The writing is kept simple with lots of dialog and minimal description.  There is a regular cast of characters, but the author is very good at bringing the reader up to speed on them, in case you haven't read the other books in the series, or you've read them a long while ago.