Curtsey [Hardcover]

Lilly Bennett is snowed under by love, murder and rich and famous friends in Kellogg's second Roundup, Wyo., tale (after Bad Manners). Lilly, a U.S. marshall and owner of Bennett Security International, headquartered at her family's Circle B Ranch, attends the Children's Hospital Christmas Dance with her current beau, wealthy Richard Jerome. After local heiress Rita Haye, known as Baroness von Singen und Mengen since her marriage, is murdered at the event, her husband, Harry, the chief suspect, hires Lilly to prove him innocent. Delving into Rita's life, Lilly learns of the woman's disastrous investment in a local country club development. One of the co-investors is heavily linked with the mob while another is a former lover of Rita's who still holds a torch for her even though he too is married. As she gossips with old friends, Lilly is struck by the number of women who are chasing Harry. With all the possibilities, she must decide if Rita was killed for love or money. Holding fast to her good humor and down-to-earth attitude, Lilly endures harsh weather and stuffy social pretensions to solve the crime.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Who says there's no social life in Roundup, Wyoming? Certainly not Lilly Bennett, the marshal/security chief who graciously allows her beau Richard Jerome to squire her to every function on the calendar--and finds corpses at most of them. This time the luckless victim is the Baroness Rita von Singen und Mengen (n‚e hometown fatty Rita Haye), shot neatly to death as the Children's Hospital Christmas Party winds down. Since rumor has linked the Baroness with everyone from Texas oilman Sam Campbell to midwestern widow Cordelia Hamilton, and the widower, charming Baron Harry, with everyone from Lilly's old friend Fancy French to Fancy's brother Daniel, Harry decides he'd better retain Lilly to keep him out of jail. But Lilly's detection, as in her debut (Bad Manners, 1995), takes a back seat to easterner- bashing, great clothes (Sam Campbell's infant wife turns up as ``a carhop in Versace''), glimpses down every aging d‚colletage in the county, and a delicious social parade from one tacky gathering to another, from the Roundup Debutante Ball (equally lethal to one invited guest) to opening night at Ada, a cattle- queen Aida. As for the mystery itself, well, ``once we got the remains taken care of, the party turned out to be hysterically fun.'' -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Lilly Bennett, the irrepressible high-society sleuth featured in the acclaimed debut novel Bad Manners, investigates the murder of a German baroness at a luxury ranch in Wyoming, frequented by a diverse group of suspects.