I’ll be honest with you. When you run a catering hall with a father who’s a mobster trying to go straight, things can get a little dicey.
Anyway, about my day. I wake up every morning thanking the universe that I’m in Astoria, Queens, and not Palm Beach, Florida, where my cheating husband disappeared with his mistress, and I got pegged as a “person of interest” in said disappearance by the police. Lucky for me – but not so much for his girlfriend – a boat washed up with her body in it, and I was off the hook when the police declared Adam presumed dead by drowning.
I usually have breakfast with my nonna – that’s Italian for “grandma” – who lives downstairs in the two-family house I share with her. Nonna is a piece of work, lol. Her body keeps shrinking – she’s about four-feet-something by now – but her personality sure doesn’t. It’s not for nothing her family nickname is The Little Mussolini. Even my dad, her own son, is kinda scared of her, and he’s about the size of one of those California Redwood trees. (Never been to CA; it’s on my bucket list.) But Nonna and I love each other to pieces. She’s basically a mother to me, especially since my own super self-involved mother lives in Italy with her deported second husband.
Once I get to work at Belle View Banquet Manor, with its lovely view of the Flushing Bay – and the LaGuardia Airport runway – I tend to business and give tours that I hope entice people to hold their weddings / Sweet Sixteens / anniversaries / Bar or Bat Mitzvahs / funeral luncheons at our welcoming establishment. If I’ve heard the joke, “You’re making me an offer I can’t refuse” once, I’ve heard it a bazillion times. But hey, if this place goes belly up, Dad’ll be back doing things he can’t tell me about, so I grit my teeth and laugh like it’s the first time I ever heard that Mob cliché.
On some days, I take a break and go visit my brother Positano “Posi” Carina at the Triborough Correctional Facility, a minimum-security prison where he’s finishing a sentence for stealing luxury sports cars and selling them to rich people in China. Posi is incredibly good-looking. He’s always trying to get me to post pictures of him with the hashtag “AnotherHotConvict.” See, there was this criminal whose mugshot was so hot that after he did his time, he wound up with a modeling career and a billionaire girlfriend. He’s Posi’s hero, annoying as I find that. But I love my bro because he’s got a good heart, even if he spends half our time together admiring his own reflection in the visiting room windows.
When you run a catering hall, you spend a lot of nights there working parties, so after a visit to Posi, I’ll grab a cab or a rideshare back to Belle View. I don’t drive, so a lot of times I get rides from my friend Jamie Boldano, who’s the son of my dad’s boss, Donny Boldano. Jamie refused to go into the family “business,” so he’s driving for an app called Pick You Up while he puts himself through graduate school to become a therapist. Smart career for a mob boss’s son. No joke. I mean it. When your family’s in “the Life,” you end up with some interesting baggage. Jamie and I grew up together, so we share a bond only kids who grew up like we did can relate to. We may or may not move out of the Friend Zone into a romantic relationship. Jamie’s got a girlfriend and I’m still skittish after my disastrous marriage.
Yeah, being home again, living with Nonna, working with Dad – it’s all good. All I have to do is keep Dad from getting into trouble, or make sure trouble doesn’t find him.
Uh oh. I just got a call from the Belle View employee supervising a bachelor party in the Bay Ballroom. They wheeled in the jump-out cake, but the stripper the groom hired never jumped out of it.
I got a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling. . .
Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win one (1) print copy of Here Comes the Body, limited to U.S. residents. Contest ends February 27, 2020. Good luck everyone!
Here Comes the Body is the first book in the NEW “Catering Hall” cozy mystery series, released February 25, 2020.
After her philandering husband’s boat went down, newly single Mia Carina went back to Astoria, the bustling Queens neighborhood of her youth. Living with her nonna and her oversized cat, Doorstop, she’s got a whole new life—including some amateur sleuthing . . .
Mia is starting work at Belle View, her father’s catering hall, a popular spot for weddings, office parties, and more—despite the planes that occasionally roar overhead on their way to LaGuardia and rattle the crystal chandelier. Soon she’s planning a bachelor party for a less-than-gentlemanly groom. But it goes awry when the gigantic cake is wheeled in and a deadly surprise is revealed . . .
Since some of her family’s associates are on the shady side, the NYPD wastes no time in casting suspicion on Mia’s father. Now, Mia’s going to have to use all her street smarts to keep him out of Rikers Island . . .
Italian recipes included!
Purchase Link
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About the author
Maria DiRico is the pen name of mystery author Ellen Byron, who is first-generation Italian American on her mother’s side. Mardi Gras Murder, the fourth book in Ellen’s bestselling Cajun Country Mystery series, won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. The series has also won multiple Best Humorous Mystery Lefty awards. Fun fact: she worked as cater-waiter for Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing. Maria/Ellen loves to translate what she learned from Martha into recipes for her books.
To learn more about Ellen, visit her website at ellenbyron.com.
All comments are welcomed.
The return to her childhood community is appealing, and Ellen Byron is a good author!
Thank you so much!
A new to me author and series. Plots that involve weddings or wedding plans are always good reads.
I think it’s a fun one!
Sounds interesting and fun to read. Awesome name for the cat! Doorstop! Thank you for the chance can’t wait to read it a fun author to read!
I love cozy mysteries and who doesn’t love a storyline where there’s a wedding involved. Thank you for the chance.
Good luck!
FIRST BOOK!!!!
I 💜 FIRST BOOKS!!!!!
thank you for the giveaway…
Yay!
Will be a great series knowing the author’s other so will be looking forward to beginning this. I like to start with a new series so there’s no catching up to do. Thank you for the update Dru Ann.
Congratulations on the release Ellen.
Thank you so much!
It’s always a journey when I check out your blog Dru Ann. Reading a book that is first in a new series is exciting and the beginning to a new adventure. Thanks for hosting Maria DiRicco aka Ellen Bryon. Fingers are crossed I may be the one chosen to win.
Good luck!
Sounds like an entertaining read and I love Italian food.
Wow, I love the cover. I like Italian food too.
Me too! I grew up with the best of it. Homemade by all my relatives.
Sounds like a great start to a new series. Loved the Plantation series, any more to come in that series.
Congrats! Thanks for the chance!
Good luck!
Looking forward to reading this book! It sounds like it will have a lot to offer, and delightful cover as well. Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
Congratulations on the new series. Sounds like another good one. Thanks for the giveaway.
This sounds like such a fun series! Looking forward to meeting Mia and her family. Congratulations on the new series!
Oh what a cute cover for this new book 📖! And I love 💕 that it is the first book 📚 in a new series….that means many more to come! Sounds like a really exciting book! Can’t wait to read it! Thank you so much for the chance to win! 😻💜😊🌈
Mia’s family sounds like a hoot! She definitely has her plate full ~
This book sounds like so much fun! I spend lots of time with my 92 year old, 100% Italian mother-in-law, and I think she enjoys shocking me, so I just know I will love these characters!
A new series to start nothing better than that Would love to win
Great review this is a new Author for me, sounds very good. Thank you
Penney
Wonderful author and a great new series. Thanks.
Wow that sounds really good! Love the cover too!
Thank you for the chance to win!!
Talk about dealing with a lot of baggage! This series sounds like fun.
Hi all! I’m having trouble commenting individually all of a sudden – probably weirdness on my end – but I’m loving the comments and wish you all good luck!
I like that title.
Sounds like a great story.
Sounds like a fun read! Thanks for a chance to win!
This definitely sounds like an interesting new series. I’m excited to try it out.
The book sounds great! Thank you for this chance to win
I’m such a fan of your writing—regardless of which of your names is on the cover! Congratulations!
Thank you so much! You know I feel the same way about you!
That is SO marvelously NYC!
Oh, it’s SO NY! It’s inspired by my family. My character lives where my real life Nonna did.
I’m looking forward to meeting Mia & the rest of her family.
This one sounds like great fun. Thanks for the chance, Ellen!
My cats want to meet Doorstop!! Winning a copy would help them to do that!! Thanks for the chance and thanks for what looks like a great new read.
New author and series for me! Count me in!
I like this author and I am excited about her new series!
This book sounds like it’s a lot of fun. I’d love to read it. Thank you for the chance.
**** WINNER ****
Here Comes the Body is Cyn209
Congratulations!