Miranda Abbott Mystery: Book 2
Publication Date: May 7, 2024
From the bestselling authors of I Only Read Murder comes a sidesplitting mystery of epic movie-of-the-week proportions, featuring the unstoppable Miranda Abbott.
Miranda Abbott, actor, will once again be a star. After a very long dry spell that followed her network hit series, Pastor Fran Investigates, Hollywood has come calling and wants Miranda back. This time, she will be the female lead in an oddly expensive movie of the week being filmed in Happy Rock. Miranda signs on the dotted line, but her trusty assistant, Andrew, a whiz with apps and clouds, thinks it all seems a bit fishy.
Things go from bad to worse when Miranda’s costar makes a grand entrance at a media-packed press conference by crashing through the atrium window at the Duchess Hotel and being very much dead. The out-of-town cast and crew are horrified, but the great citizens of Happy Rock—including police chief Ned Buckley, grumpy bookstore owner and soon-to-be ex-husband Edgar Abbott, Bea of Bea’s B&B, and the malodorous Melvin Jacobson of S.J. Fertilizer Supply—return to help solve the case in this second Miranda Abbott mystery.
Miranda Abbott is a film star of the past but chooses to believe she’s still a star and behaves as such because – well . . . she’s Miranda! Thus, the foundation of a wonderfully clever, quirky, and quite entertaining mystery adventure is found in Mystery in the Title, written by brothers Ian Ferguson and Will Ferguson.
Miranda is doing her best to make her comeback in film, assisted by her faithful assistant, Andrew, who lives in the pantry of Bea’s B&B, where Miranda has taken up residence in her own attic suite. The sleepy little town of Happy Rock and its unassuming, “happy” residents take life as it comes—slowly. All that changes when Alan Zabic of A to Z Film Services hits town and offers Miranda the starring role in an upcoming movie of the week. It’s an amazing opportunity—in fact, it’s almost too good to be true.
Miranda is to co-star with the huge Hollywood action star—Harry Tomlin. However, when Harry “drops” into the opening press conference, the mystery of solving his murder commences. With Miranda’s past starring role in the Pastor Fran Investigates television series, Miranda inserts herself into the investigation with gusto.
Police Chief, Ned Buckley, attempts to lead investigation proceedings, but with a fascinating cast of possible suspects and an equally eclectic group of Happy Rock inhabitants to navigate, it turns into a rollicking quest to find the murderer of what has now turned into two murders! The plot is revealed bit by bit, feeding eager sleuths morsels of clues that ultimately climax into an ending you never see coming.
Delightful and thoroughly enjoyable, Mystery in the Title is a charmer from the opening paragraph to the last sentence. Miranda is simultaneously irritating and adorable, while the murder mystery is clever and delightfully devious. As the mystery unfolds, it keeps you guessing as it skillfully winds its way through a myriad of endearing characters to a surprise whodunnit ending. Extremely well written with loads of charm and witty humor.
Mystery in the Title is an outrageously fun and deviously clever whodunnit of the highest order. Read. Laugh. Enjoy. Repeat. This is an easy one to fall in love with because as Miranda so wisely advises, “Love is the same side of a different coin.”
IAN FERGUSON won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for Village of the Small Houses and is the co-author, with his brother, Will, of How to Be a Canadian. A writer and creative director in the film and television industry, he lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
WILL FERGUSON is a three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour. His novels include 419, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and The Finder, which won the 2021 Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.
