Death By Inferior Design
A Domestic Bliss Mystery

By Leslie Caine

     Erin Gilbert and Steve Sullivan are business rivals, two interior designers who have both set up shop in upscale Crestview. Both have been engaged to design different rooms for two couples and the winner will get to watch the Super Bowl game. The loser will also get to watch the game, but it will be with the repellent Randy Axelrod (who is organizing the competition) at home on his sofa. Something very, very strange is going on here and the warring couples whose homes are being made over seem more in need of a marriage counselor. When adopted Erin finds a baby photo of herself hidden in a hole in the wall, things start getting really weird.

   When I first saw the length of the book " over 350 pages " and the fact that it was going to feature decorating tips, my heart sank. I dislike overlong whodunits and know nothing about DIY, but just a few chapters in and I was hooked! The tips are either useful or fascinating, as are the descriptions of the work being done. I still don't know much, but this author has a way of making it all sound like the thing to be doing. With a small cast of characters, it is easy to get under the skin of the participants, and this is an imaginative and involving plot that is going to make reading the second novel very interesting. Although the two protagonists are rivals, this is no battle of the sexes novel; at least not with Gilbert & Sullivan! Other marriages are on the rocks, huge secrets are revealed and red herrings abound. A well-above-the-average cozy that I couldn't put down.