Book Review : The Witless Protection Program by Maria DiRico

  Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Kensington Press via #Netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.

In the fifth Catering Hall Mystery by Agatha Award-winning author Maria DiRico, series sleuth Mia Carina has finally steered her Italian-American family’s catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor, into becoming the premiere party site of Astoria, Queens. Now if only her presumed dead ex-husband would get out of the way...

Synopsis:

A strong, independent woman and respected entrepreneur, Mia never imagined she’d pine for a marriage proposal. Yet lately, with her beloved Shane, she’s on tenterhooks. It’s especially surprising, considering Mia’s first husband, Adam, was a philandering grifter, assumed lost-at-sea after a boating disaster. But everyone knows what happens when you assume . . .

While working a huge wedding expo in Manhattan, Mia is shocked to spot the man who nearly destroyed her life. The one who’s supposed to be sleeping with the fishes. But she loses him in the crowd. And when it happens again the next day, it’s time for an emergency meeting with the family—and the Family. Because if Adam is alive, Mia is still married . . .

Everyone wants Adam dead. Everyone except Mia. She’s dealt with enough police for a lifetime. Mia needs to be a divorcée, not a widow. But someone out there disagrees, and if Mia doesn’t discover who, she may never be free to marry Shane—or anyone else . . .

Review:

In this, the 5th in the series, Mia is about to get her man to the altar. But there might just be some stumbling blocks along the way....from her ex who suddenly is back ALIVE, to a wedding present that causes legal hassles, to a vengeful ex out to destroy Mia's day. It's gonna take some old school gangster family edge, and love, to figure out how to save the day for Mia and Shane! Full of laughs, this is a fun entry into the series!

About the Author:

Maria DiRico (the pen name of award-winning author Ellen Byron) was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Queens and Westchester County. She is first-generation Italian-American on her mother’s side. On her father’s side, her grandfather was a low-level Jewish mobster who disappeared in 1933 under mysterious circumstances.

While growing up in Queens, Maria/Ellen's cousins uncles ran the Astoria Manor and Grand Bay Marina catering halls. MARDI GRAS MURDER, the fourth book in Ellen Byron'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 from Left Coast Crime. 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.