Cold Feet

by Karen Pullen

Overview

Special Agent Stella Lavender has a stressful‚ adrenaline-fueled job: buying drugs undercover from paranoid drug dealers.

So one afternoon she's grateful to be relaxing at an elegant outdoor wedding. But as the guests wait‚ then grow restive‚ the satin-clad bride is dying most horribly. Who would kill a bride--an "angel" according to the groom--just minutes before her nuptials?

Joining the investigation‚ Stella discovers the bride's surprising history and that jealousy‚ depression‚ and grief colored her relationships.

In Cold Feet‚ Karen Pullen draws the reader into a riveting story that alternates between Stella's life as a drug agent and her determination to untangle a complex knot of secrets‚ harmful emotions‚ and questions of identity in order to find a killer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781410458858
Publisher:	Gale Cengage Learning
Publication date:	06/26/2013
Series:	A Stella Lavender Mystery
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	417
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

Stella Lavender, the appealing 26-year-old heroine of Pullen's absorbing first mystery, welcomes the chance to attend an outdoor wedding after spending long hours buying drugs undercover for North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation. Stella accompanies her book illustrator grandmother, Fern, to the Rosscairn Castle Bed and Breakfast, where Mike Olmert, whose mother is a new client of Fern's, is due to marry the curiously friendless Justine Bradley. Just before the ceremony, Justine is found dead in one of the B&B's guest rooms, evidently the victim of some lethal poison. To Stella's embarrassment, one of those investigating the homicide happens to be her philandering ex-fiancé, an SBI researcher. That Justine's murder might never be solved brings back chilling memories of Stella's mother, Grace, who at age 23 was abducted during a gas station robbery and never seen again. Readers will hope to see a lot more of Stella in future installments. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Pullen?s debut introduces an engaging new detective meeting the challenge of her first homicide . . . I can?t wait to head back to North Carolina and meet up with Stella and Fern again.

-Library Journal, December 2012

From the Publisher

Young cop Stella might have moxie, but Fern, her free-spirited grandmother, deserves credit for raising her to be independent. Both are guests at a wedding that's abruptly cancelled when the bride, Justine, is found dead from poisoning. After the autopsy, the plot thickens just a teensy bit when Stella learns that Justine was transsexual. She also finds out that the minister has shady dealings on the side and that the groom's ex-girlfriend has secrets, too. Concurrently, Stella is working undercover on drug stings, and to her surprise, one of the wedding guests turns out to be a major drug dealer. Stella has a good partner, but he's no match for the bad guys when her cover is blown. VERDICT Pullen's debut introduces an engaging new detective meeting the challenge of her first homicide. Her ambitious plot might be overstuffed for one book, but I can't wait to head back to North Carolina and meet up with Stella and Fern again. [See Prepub Alert, 8/20/12.]

Library Journal

The perfect wedding gift: strychnine for the bride. What's keeping the bride? It turns out to be a fatal case of indigestion caused by a cup of herbal tea laced with poison. Stella Lavender, currently handling undercover drug busts for North Carolina law enforcement but yearning for a transfer to Homicide, is on the spot to find out whodunit and why after her granny, Fern, invites her to the nuptials at the Rosscairn Castle Bed & Breakfast. Wyatt, the innkeeper, insists it's all a plot to close him down. He cites the maple syrup in the air-conditioner compressor, the ammonia in the water softener, the dead raccoon in the driveway and the spray painting on the inn sign. But Stella, relying on computer input from her ex and chats with the bridal party, uncovers several other motives for killing Justine, including the fact that before she started calling herself Justine and had gender reassignment surgery, she was named John. Did the groom know? Did his parents, who operated an ultraconservative online church ministry? Did his sister and her gay partner? Did the best man, whose wife died of anaphylactic shock at a picnic six months before? Did the couple who filed a $1 million lawsuit against the birthing center where Justine worked? While she's sorting through all the possibilities and sexual proclivities among the attendees, Stella's undercover drug buys put her and her flirtatious granny in jeopardy, necessitating a short stay at a neighboring B&B, whose owner loathes Wyatt even though her son works for him. There'll be one more fatality before a commitment ceremony and a sperm-donor pregnancy conclude Stella's first murder case. The best thing about this debut is the chili recipe (tried and tasted) that ends it.

Kirkus Reviews