Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 0385518021

DEAD EX is the third Wollie Shelley book. Wollie is a greeting card designer, muralist, and reluctant professional dater and she returns with her off-beat L.A. friends and family. In this outing, one of her former lovers, David, is murdered and Wollie’s pal Joey is the prime suspect. Joey is also one of David’s former lovers and one of the prime beneficiaries of his will. Wollie tries to clear Joey while her friend hides out from the rabid press, the police, and her soon-to-be-ex-husband.

To exonerate Joey, Wollie has to find out a lot more than she ever wanted to about the inner workings and rivalries of a soap opera where David worked. And she falls back on her professional dating skills to do so, going out on televised dates with the male cast members. As usual, these are the “how not to” dating encounters that we have come to expect with disaster prone Wollie.

I thought DEAD EX was a little more serious in tone than the previous Wollie books, but there is still plenty of Wollie misadventure to amuse the reader. And between seriously bad hair days and flying glogg, Kozak shows us some really good writing. She is incredibly but subtly sensitive when she writes about Wollie’s institutionalized brother PB. Kozak balances Wollie’s love and devotion for PB with his sometimes frustrating behavior and naively charming worldview. PB is never exploited for laughs or ill-treated, but you see a genuine and natural humor as he interacts with the world at large.

And you can tell that Kozak has some really good female friends and has modelled Joey and Fredreeq after them. She has captured the essence of friends who stick by each other in a crisis and band together against all comers. And she does it in brief - the list of items that Wollie picks up for Joey when she is on the run from the paparazzi says it all.

Favorite character? Uncle Theo. Did I guess it? No. Will I read another? Absolutely.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

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