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Trying
to solve the kidnapping of a friend’s daughter sounds more compelling than
leading a Portland writers’ conference to an out-of-town writer who’s suddenly
been put in charge.
After
establishing herself with some success as an author—and how much success can
the average author even expect?—Charlemagne Russo, known to friends as Charlee,
agrees to speak at a writers’ conference as a favor to a friend. When Charlee
arrives in Portland, she expects her friend and the conference organizer, Viv
Lundquist, to want a little help with the final conference plans, but Viv has
other ideas. After telling Charlee that her adult daughter, Hanna, has been
kidnapped, Viv pressures Charlee to take the reins of the rest of the
conference organizing, from stuffing gift bags to herding volunteers. Charlee
is agreeable (though Viv’s harried entitlement might make someone who was less
of a softie turn her back on the request) and tries to do what she can in a
sort of Murphy’s Law of conference planning. First, it seems that the
conference site, the Pacific Portland Hotel, has double-booked a dog agility
show for the same days, and the hotel staff doesn’t seem to think this is a
problem. Then an East Coast storm means that many of the prestigious workshop
leaders may be unable to make it for their sessions, but Viv doesn’t seem to
think it’s a problem if Charlee steps in and offers professional writing advice
in their steads. Charlee’s almost at her wits’ end with Viv’s requests and loses
patience when Viv is willing to embezzle conference fees to pay Hanna’s ransom.
All of this leads Charlee to wonder if Hanna has been kidnapped at all or if
Viv is looking for an excuse to liquidate the funds for herself. Drawing on her
past success in investigating, Charlee decides the time has come for her to get
to the bottom of Hanna’s disappearance, even if the truth implicates someone
she once trusted.
Idiosyncratic
characters annoy rather than charm in this book-centric cozy that doesn’t have
the humor or lightness of Clark’s debut mystery (Fiction
Can Be Murder, 2018, etc.).
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