Made Up to Kill

THE EDGAR AWARD WINNING WRITERS' DELIGHTFUL FIRST NOVEL, FEATURING THAT MADCAP DETECTIVE TEAM HAILA AND JEFF TROY. "A speedy humorous, and magnetic mystery—a brilliant beginning for Kelley Roos' mystery-writing career." The Raleigh NC News and Observer Sparkling comedy, light-hearted humor with a lively and entertaining tone, Made Up to Kill features eccentric characters, pixelated, fast-paced dialogue and non-stop action. Once Haila Rogers meets Jeff Troy and sets her cap for him, their zany battle-of-the-sexes, Nick and Nora, banter begins to steal the book. The setting, behind-the-scenes production of a Broadway play allows the Roos to present all the off-beat showbiz folk involved in a theatrical production who add to the laughs and lighten the mood of what in lesser hands could have been a grim tale of poisonings, stabbings and shootings but instead becomes a cozy and charming comedy mystery tale. The day before the show opens the nervous young star loses her voice, opening the way for her less talented understudy to replace her. But miraculously her voice returns just in time for the the opening. Then she collapses from a poisoning that doesn't quite take, right after the curtain rings down on the final act. And the next night while wearing the young star's fur coat, another cast member is stabbed. By this time Jeff has proposed to Haila but lacks the where-with-all to begin married life, until the play's producer offers a reward for anyone who can identify the killer. Egged on by Haila, Jeff decides that playing detective might just solve his financial shortfall. And Haila determined he will succeed, drags him into one perilous situation after another in a story that alternates from grinsome to gruesome.