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Book Review of High Kicks, Hot Chocolate, and Homicides (Happy Hoofers, Bk 5)

High Kicks, Hot Chocolate, and Homicides (Happy Hoofers, Bk 5)
jodymcgrath avatar reviewed on + 110 more book reviews


* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review *

High Kicks, Hot Chocolate, and Homicides is the fifth book in Mary McHugh's A Happy Hoofers Mystery series. I haven't read any of the other books in this series, but I don't think you need to really. They do mention a lot of things that happened in previous books, but each book is a separate story. I guess the rotate narrators and this one is narrated by Mary Louise who is a housewife and of course part of the Happy Hoofers.

The Happy Hoofers, a group of 5 dancers in their early 50s, are hired by the Rockettes to dance with them in their Radio Coty Music Hall Christmas performance. When the head Rockette, Glenna is found dead, her body mangled by machinery under the stage, the girls find themselves embroiled in another murder mystery.

I don't think this book was a mystery. It was more like a murder happened and the Happy Hoofers happened to be there and then Mary Louise happened to be told who the murderer was. There was no sleuthing or clues. The murderer was completely obvious and even the twist was obvious from before the murder even happened. Mostly the story centered on her deciding if she loved her husband or the man she was seeing on the side more. First the made her husband a complete jerk, then the did a 180 and made him a sweetheart. Still she was totally stepping out on him. And if she said, "Oh George" or "Oh Mike" or "Oh Peter" any more than she already did, it would have been in every paragraph. I pictured her as Mrs. Brady. The story also went into way to much detail about where everyone went for lunch, and what they had, and what the recipe was, and what the place looked like. Then she took us for a tour of New York. Describing everything. At the end they even spent a chapter talking about free things people. Isiting New York could do. Was this published by the New York PR firm? Even the climax of the story was bad. It started and stopped and started and stopped and started and stopped. And then it was over.

The only reason I am giving this book two stars instead of one, is because I liked the idea behind it. That just because these gales were in their 50s didn't mean they were not still active, desirable adults. I would never recommend this book to anyone unless they were planning a trip to New York.