Here Comes the Body

When Mia Carina returns to Queens, New York, to work at her father's catering hall, she has more than airplanes at LaGuardia causing her angst. In Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico (AKA Ellen Byron), her father has been associated with the local Italian mob families, but has promised to go straight, a promise Mia hopes he will keep. (Here Comes the Body will be released by Kensington Publishing Corp on February 25.)

Mia starts working at Belle View, her father's catering hall, 

in the hopes of keeping her father away from the family "business." He insists he doesn't want to to back to prison and she believes by working to make the catering hall, a success, she and Ravello can stay out of trouble.

One of their first events is a bachelor party for a groom who might or might not want to stray on his soon-to-be bride. When a dead body is found in a gigantic birthday cake at a bachelor party, and a check for one million dollars, signed by her father is found next to the body, keeping him on the straight and narrow might be more difficult than she envisioned. 

Two of the guests at the party seem to recognize the woman and Mia does too. It seems the

dead woman, named Angie, had been in to see her father and claimed her owed her money for services she was contacted via the internet to provide. Embarrassed by the mistake he made on the fake website, Ravello claims he doesn't know Angie and never saw her before.

That leads the police to suspect he is guilty and they work to find the evidence. Mia, on the other hand, works to find a connection with the celebrating bachelors and the two mogul brothers who are eyeing the Belle View for redevelopment instead. 

A terrific start to a new series by Maria DiRico (Ellen Byron)