Andy has spent her life being a disappointment to her mother. The wealthy, perfectly coiffed, always impeccable Cissy is constantly reminding Andy that she’s 1) not married 2) went to some backwater Midwestern Art College instead of to the Ivy League and 3) dropped out of her debutante ball. This would be enough to strangle your mother in my book, but Andy instead swallows her stress and hides behind her smart aleck attitude. However, when one of Cissy’s good friends dies in her sleep, Andy begins to question her mother’s sanity – more so than usual anyway.

Bebe Kent may have been in her 70s, but she was blooming with life. There is no way she would just pass away in her sleep quietly, but Cissy seems to be the only one convinced of that. Bebe was living at Belle Meade, a new chic retirement community that was catering to the ageing Dallas socialite set. Coincidently, Belle Meade is the brainchild of Annabelle Meade – a chubby, awkward girl that Andy used to hang out with at summer camp. Annabelle is now a self-assured businesswoman, but when Cissy starts screaming murder, she begs Andy for help. Can’t she keep her mother in line? However, when a second body turns up, Annabelle agrees to let Cissy temporarily move in to sniff out clues. Did the two healthy, albeit elderly, women simply die in their sleep, or did someone help them with their final slumber?

Andy continues to be a pleasing character and McBride writes her internal monologues fast and fun. Having a self-deprecating sense of humor helps when one has a mother like Cissy, and Andy’s smart aleck behavior sees her through the tougher times. McBride writes about the moneyed jet set with a wink and a smile, likely trying to do for Dallas, Texas, what Janet Evanovich has done for Trenton, New Jersey.

Unfortunately, the pacing is off and it bogs the zippy writing style down. At a book that clocks in at 330 pages, it takes 150 of those pages to set up the mystery – and that set-up is seriously lacking. The vast majority of those 150 pages are spent on Andy worrying about her mother and trying to convince the woman that there is nothing wrong. Nothing nefarious is afoot. Her friend died of natural causes. Blah, blah, blah. It got tedious rather quickly, and then it takes another 40 pages to set up Cissy moving into Belle Meade. This leaves very little time for investigation, and likewise, the mystery is very slim.

There isn’t a lot of room for suspect character development here, therefore once the author lets one significant clue drop the identity of the murderer is no mystery. Readers who aren’t absent-mindedly flipping the pages should have no problem noticing it at all. In addition, the common thread between both dead women was the fact that they were members of an exclusive dating service. Much is made of this, starting with the back cover copy, but it takes up very little of the word count. In fact, Cissy and Andy only spend one chapter running down that list of men. One of these men does play a role in the resolution, but readers are given no more than a cursory glance at him.

McBride can write fast, fun and frothy, and Andy is a nice young woman. She’s a completely capable heroine who can certainly carry a cozy mystery series. However, she needs more of a focus on mystery to make it all work. The pacing is so uneven that it’s hard to imagine that newcomers will have enough incentive to stick around for the finish. Fans already invested in the series should be more forgiving, as this installment does provide closer analysis of the Cissy character. Still, it’s hard to understand why Andy doesn’t just tell her mother to buzz off and get a life. Ultimately, it’s a mixed bag.

--Wendy Crutcher