Bell, Book, and Scandal
A Jane Jeffrey Mystery, No. 14
By Jill Churchill 

     Homemaker Jane Jeffry has finally finished her manuscript, and attending a mystery conference is the chance she needs to keep it out of the drawer permanently. Best friend Shelley Nowack and Jane attend the writer's convention with plans of learning more about writing. Jane is also dying to meet some the writers she has read about in a writer's magazine.

     Jane and Shelly join some really quirky folks at the conference. Zac Zebra, a reviewer, known and hated by many for his cruel reviews. Vernetta Strausmann, a loud, obnoxious, e-pubbed writer. Miss Mystery, a woman bent on spreading nasty gossip from the conferences she attends. And Sophie, an editor bent on promoting those she prefers and destroying the chances of those she does not. Needless to say, Jane and Shelly end up in a mystery when someone decides to poison one of these quirky, cruel folks and attack another. Lucky for Jane, her boyfriend Detective Mel VanDyne is speaking at the conference and it's his information that instigates Jane into investigating the situation further. Even better, she gets a little help from one of her favorite writers, Felicity Roane.

     Bell, Book and Scandal is number fourteen in the Jane Jeffry series. Churchill spends a lot of time on Jane's personal life, to the point of exact details on things such as buying a jeep, but she does try to balance it with a mystery of sorts. There is no murder, only an attempted poisoning and an attack. Another part of the mystery is finding out who Miss Mystery is and putting a stop to her malicious gossip. It looks like Jane's life may be taking a new direction now that the kids are almost grown. Hopefully this new terrain will lead to some noteworthy mysteries that will keep the series going.