The Witless Protection Program (A Catering Hall Mystery)
by Maria DiRico
About The Witless Protection Program
The Witless Protection Program (A Catering Hall Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Setting – New York
Kensington Cozies (March 26, 2024)
Mass Market Paperback : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1496744624
ISBN-13 : 978-1496744623
Digital ASIN : B0C9W8W668
Mia Carina has steered her Italian-American family’s Astoria, Queens, catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor, into becoming the borough’s premiere party site, and nothing could make her happier—except her boyfriend proposing. There’s just one presumed-dead obstacle in the way . . .
A strong, independent woman and respected entrepreneur, Mia never imagined she’d pine for a marriage proposal. Yet lately, with her beloved Shane, she’s on tenterhooks. It’s especially surprising, considering Mia’s first husband, Adam, was a philandering grifter, assumed lost-at-sea after a boating disaster. But everyone knows what happens when you assume . . .
While working a huge wedding expo in Manhattan, Mia is shocked to spot the man who nearly destroyed her life. The one who’s supposed to be sleeping with the fishes. But she loses him in the crowd. And when it happens again the next day, it’s time for an emergency meeting with the family—and the Family. Because if Adam is alive, Mia is still married . . .
Everyone wants Adam dead. Everyone except Mia. She’s dealt with enough police for a lifetime. Mia needs to be a divorcée, not a widow. But someone out there disagrees, and if Mia doesn’t discover who, she may never be free to marry Shane—or anyone else . . .
Italian recipes included!
Read an Excerpt
Elisabetta stopped in front of the house directly across the street from the one she and Mia shared. Long lived in for years by an elderly recluse who’d recently died, the house hovered on the edge of barely maintained. Unlike every other house on the block, this one wasn’t attached to a twin two-family home. The reclusive owner had torn down the second home at some point. Neighborhood gossip said it was to give him more privacy, which was borne out by the fact the empty parcel where the second two-family once stood now sprouted nothing but weeds. The only healthy vegetation on the lot was a dividing wall of high hedges that provided a barrier between the recluse and the next set of homes.
Elisabetta pushed open the gate of the chain link fence surrounding the property. She gestured for Mia and Shane to join her in the home’s barely attended front yard. Elisabetta threw her hands in the air triumphantly. “Mia bellissima e mio bello – welcome to your new home!”
Stunned, the couple stared at Elisabetta. After a moment, Mia found her voice but could only stammer out, “Wha… wha… How? I… I…”
“Thank the computer you got me for my birthday,” Elisabetta said, beaming. “I got poking around on it and started watching some videos. I took the money I saved in the bank and learned – what they call it? – the day trading.”
“You’ve been trading stocks?” Mia rubbed her forehead, trying to make sense of the unexpected development. “That’s what you’ve been doing all those hours you disappear into your ‘office?’ I thought you were playing online solitaire or something.”
“Feh.” Elisabetta waved her hand dismissively. “That’s for old ladies.”
“No offense but —” Shane wisely didn’t finish the sentence.
“I made enough money to buy this place when the old guy who lived here died,” Elisabetta said. She gave her hair, shaped in a stylish pixie cut, a pat. “And had money left over for a new wig.”
About Maria DiRico
Maria DiRico is the pseudonym for Ellen Byron, author of the award-winning, USA Today bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries. Born in Queens, New York, she is a first-generation Italian-American on her mother’s side and the granddaughter of a low-level Jewish mobster on her father’s side. She grew up visiting the Astoria Manor and Grand Bay Marina catering halls, which were run by her Italian mother’s family in Queens and have become the inspiration for her Catering Hall Mystery Series. DiRico has been a writer-producer for hit television series like Wings and Just Shoot Me, and her first play, Graceland, appears in the Best Short Plays collection. She’s a freelance journalist, with over 200 articles published in national magazines, and previously worked as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing. A native New Yorker who attended Tulane University, Ellen lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.
Author Links – Website – Chicks on the Case – Facebook – Twitter –
Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo –Bookshop.org – Kensington –
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