Domestic Diva #17
Krista Davis’ latest addition to her Domestic Diva Mysteries, The Diva Goes Overboard, follows event planner Sophie Winston in Old Town Alexandria. Her best, and highest maintenance friend, Natasha Smith, has wonderful but shocking news. Her free-spirited mother, Wanda, and local antiques dealer, Orson Chatsworth, are getting married. Sophie is thrilled to be asked to help Natasha get an engagement party together, but not so thrilled with the short time frame she’s given to work with. With the short notice, she already knows finding a venue is going to be more than a little challenging.
One lucky break is that Orson’s daughter, Stella St. James, can provide a variety of food boards, so catering is easily taken care of. Sophie’s intuition, determination, and no shortage of luck manages to pull everything together, despite her initial fears. Even though it was a very last-minute kind of party, everything seems to be going well — until Orson is poisoned and his death brings the celebrations to an abrupt halt. Not even Sophie can plan for everything.
Now one might think that a horrible murder at an engagement party would be the most dramatic thing that could happen. But things amp up even more during the most contentious part of anyone’s passing: the reading of the will. Orson Chatsworth was a man of impressive means, and as such he has quite a few people interested in how he intended to divide them. No one is prepared for the answer. Now I won’t spoil it, but the fall out has accusations and suspicions flying wild. Most importantly, it results in Sophie digging into Orson’s death along with her local sleuthing squad. It turns out Orson has a few more secrets than anyone suspected. It also appears that whoever poisoned him isn’t quite done, putting Sophie and the rest of the town on alert and at risk. Luckily, local police Sargent Wolf Fleischman is pleased to share information with her and her team as long as she doesn’t push him too hard for anything confidential. If she happens upon that information on her own, he isn’t about to deny it if it means she’s found him a lead. Small town politics run rampant, and it’s fascinating to figure out who exactly knows what about each other’s business as Sophie investigates.
While this is Krista Davis’ seventeenth book in the series, it is one that new readers can pick up easily. The character dynamics are explained clearly, the town layout explained in a concise manner, and there is a character anthology at the start of the book. I do love when books provide these, as it really helps new readers jump into the story. Veteran readers of the Domestic Diva Mysteries will love this new addition as well, as it has plenty of twists and turns that will keep them guessing as they follow Sophie. I was also tickled to see how the title tied in. With such a variety of small-town characters, there is something for everyone in The Diva Goes Overboard. I suggest this cozy for anyone who enjoys a small-town cozy with intrigue and a layered mystery. Krista Davis also has every chapter open with a little advice column from Sophie and Natasha that answers a variety of questions about charcuterie and food boards. I had a very limited understanding of what they were, and found myself looking forward to those bits as well. — Carla Schantz