Maria DiRico may be a new name for all of us. However, the copyright page, and even a note I  received from the publicist named Ellen Byron, author of the award-winning Cajun Country series, as the author of this first Catering Hall Mystery. Rest assured that Here Comes the Body is not only a polished first in a series, it’s also fun with a great deal of humor.

After a failed marriage with a cheating husband who disappeared on a boat, Mia Carina is back in her Queens neighborhood of Astoria, living upstairs from her grandmother, her nonna, and eager to start work as assistant general manager at her father’s party venue, Belle View Banquet Manor. But, nothing is simple in Mia’s life. Her father, Ravello Carina, is a well-known mobster who is trying to go straight by making a success of the event center. But, before Mia can even meet the staff, a woman barges in, claims Ravello met her on a dating site, and “Angie here doesn’t do freebies.” Angie is easily removed by the chef, a former army cook. Even so, Mia feels a little uneasy.

She’s smart to feel uneasy. When a gigantic cake is wheeled in for a bachelor party, no stripper pops out of the cake. Instead, Mia finds Angie’s body, stabbed to death, inside the cake. It’s easy for a lazy policeman to point to Ravello as a killer. It’s his event center. He supposedly knew and had a run-in with the victim. And, he’s a mobster connected to the Boldano family. A fire at the manor, and a second body are enough to convince a prosecutor and the newspapers that Mia’s father is guilty.

What no one counts on is Mia. She’s whip-smart, shrewd when it comes to crooked dealings and men (other than the one she married), and she’s quickly learning how to deal with girlfriends, brides and mothers intent on having the perfect event. Put all of that together, and she uses her knowledge to track down people who might want her father out of the way. Mia has street smarts.

Donny Boldano, head of the Boldano family, tells Mia “You’ve got your mother’s looks, your father’s big heart, and your nonna’s moxie.” As an amateur sleuth, and strong protagonist, she needs all of those qualities. She defends the Italian and Greek grandmothers in the neighborhood from a greedy realtor. She knows how to manipulate them, and deal with the “Family”. But, she’s also family to the prison guards where her father has done time, and where her older brother is currently serving time. The scenes at the prison are some of the most entertaining ones in the book. Loyal to her own family, tender-hearted over pets, kind to grandmothers, respectful to her elders. Mia Carina takes some great steps forward in this promising first book. But, the author is as shrewd as her character, and there are a couple threads left dangling for future books. I can’t wait.

Ellen Byron’s (and Maria DiRico’s) website is www.ellenbyron.com

Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico. Kensington, 2020. ISBN 9781496725349 (paperback), 294p.

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Note: Again, while it’s not as easy to get books from bookstores at the moment, just a note that Here Comes the Body is available as both an ebook and an eaudiobook if your public library subscribes to Hoopla. And, also a reminder that public libraries do pay for these materials.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a copy of the book from the publicist.