Couldn't get into it. ( )

Fourth in the Tory Bauer series, this one moves the story right along,
too. It's Halloween in Delphi, and time for a few closeted skeletons to
rattle their way out into the open. When Tory find the dead body in the
bathroom of the cafe, everyone is shocked to learn it's the heretofore
unknown estranged husband of cafe owner, Aphrodite, that heavyset, grim
and taciturn elderly lady with the ever present cigarette working the
grill in the back. The shocks just keep coming, though, with in walks a
middle aged overblown ex-stripper named Alanna Luna who immediately
enfolds the startled and shaken Aphrodite and yells, "Mom!" When a
second sudden and violent death rocks the town of Delphi, Tory MUST
figure out whodunit because she herself falls under suspicion.

This one is another good 'un, well written and containing characters as
common as cornbread and as well known by this time as a well worn shoe.
It's gets another 5. ( )

Protagonist: Torey Bauer, diner waitress
Setting: present-day small town Delphi, South Dakota
Series #4

It's Halloween in Delphi, and Tory is grumpily dressed as a Munchkin for her
diner shift. The place is hopping with its usual array of morning patrons, a
Girl Scout troop singing ghoulish songs of the season, trick or treaters,
and a few out-of-towners. One of the out-of-towners, a small nondescript
man, takes a pill and asks directions to the restroom. Twenty minutes later,
Tory finds him face down on the bathroom floor. This dead man turns out to
be the estranged husband of one of the series regulars. What is even more
surprising is that two out-of-towners who show up within thirty minutes of
his death are his daughter and grandson. That
night, things go from bad to horrible when one of the series regulars is
killed. Tory finds herself in the middle of crazy family doings as both
executor of the will and an inheritor. A favorite series. ( )