March of Crime (The Murder-By-Month Mysteries, 11)

March of Crime by Jess Lourey is the eleventh installment in The Murder-By-Month Mystery series. Mira James is at the Turtle Stew with Ron Sims, owner of Battle Lake Recall, discussing a series of articles he wants written. She is shocked when she discovers the "person" next to her is actually one of Ida Gilbertson's life-sized dolls that she is displaying around town. When Mira attempts to flee the Turtle Stew without encountering Mayor Kennie Rogers (she might have another unusual business idea), she knocks over the doll and gets a surprise. They discover a corpse inside the dolls clothes. Chief of Police Gary Wohnt is happy to blame Mira for the crime (of course). Mira sets out to find the killer and avoid being locked up in the poky. It would be difficult to continue her career if she was in the hoosegow plus what are the chances of conjugal visits from Johnny.

March of Crime is different from the earlier books in The Murder-By-Month Mystery series. It fell outside the cozy category with the foul language, intimate relations and the crude references (phone sex line for example). I thought the pace was slow which made the book seem so very long (it was only 266 pages). I am amazed my eyeballs did not pop out from the number of times I rolled my eyes. The over-the-top characters (everyone seems "quirky" or eccentric) and Kennie Rogers idiotic business ideas were not humorous to me (my mother, though, laughed through the whole book). There is little action until the very end of the book. I felt like Mira opened her mouth on the first page (told from first person POV) and never stopped talking (what is called "verbal diarrhea"). March of Crime can be a stand-alone novel. Mira and her history is thoroughly discussed in the first chapter. The mystery is not one easily solved unless the reader is a master mystery sleuth. I will tell you that one clue is the key to solving it. My rating for March of Crime is 3 out of 5 stars (I gave it a 2 and my mother a 4). If you have a delicate stomach, I would suggest not reading the food descriptions (Minnesota Hot Dish for example). I did like Ida's comment that dolls make people happy—I totally agree (I prefer Raggedy Ann). March of Crime is for readers who prefer zany over-the-top characters, hare-brained business ideas and ribald humor.