Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill: A Novel [Hardcover]

N. M. Kelby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2008

Take a slasher-movie actress, a Scottish circus clown, an FBI school dropout, a blind heiress, a junk-food-loving millionaire developer, and a Buddha-quoting bluesman, add a couple of murders in a normally sedate retirement community in south Florida, and you get an irresistible tale that’s part Carl Hiaasen and part Gabriel García Márquez. It all goes down as easy as a Key lime pie martini, the signature drink of the Bad Girl’s Bar & Grill.

N. M. Kelby’s last three novels have received glowing reviews in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, People, and the Atlantic Monthly. Carl Hiaasen has called her “a natural-born writer,” and Kirkus praised her “black humor that sizzles.” Sit back, put up your feet, and get ready to lose yourself in a rollicking good story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lyrical prose and Technicolor characters lift Kelby's amusing, unconventional mystery set at a gated Florida beach community plagued by murder and mayhem. The main responsibility of Brian Wilson, a security guard at Laguna Key who was kicked out of FBI training, is to protect the ethereal Sophie, blind daughter of his boss, Mr. Whit. Mr. Whit, who's buying up property to expand his small empire, is frustrated by the last holdout, ex–horror-film actress Danni Keene, owner of the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill, which has been repeatedly vandalized. Brian finds the first body, that of a homeless activist whose estranged brother, Sòlas Mackay, arrives with his traveling puppet circus and sets up camp in the Bad Girl's parking lot. Danni discovers the next, a Barry Manilow tribute artist and hit man she had hired to entertain customers. Sòlas, Danni, Brian and Sophie must battle marauding vultures, fierce weather, a devious ex-husband and the stun-gun–happy Mr. Whit. Along the way, Kelby (Whale Season) offers some unexpected wisdom. (June)
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From Booklist

Take a deep breath. Imagine a lighthearted mystery despite a fair number of corpses. It takes place in Laguna Key, in and around the bar and grill of the title. Danni, who runs the joint,  was once famous for her bloodcurdling scream in slasher movies. A circus comes to town, with the last member of the clan Macbeth and his beauteous, full-size puppets. He has vestigial wings. There’s Brian Wilson, a local, who hums a lot of Beach Boy tunes. There’s a dog that looks like Barry Manilow; a beautiful blind woman; an evil husband; a Buddhist jazz singer. And, of course, there’s a full palette of local color. The kaleidoscopic plot, such as it is, has to do with the development of lush Florida land and with familial ties gone bad. Following Whale Season (2006), this is Kelby’s second venture into the antic surreality that typifies a certain strain of the Florida crime novel, and she clearly has a flair for getting goofy in that Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey way. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (June 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307382079
• ISBN-13: 978-0307382078
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #818,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

N.M.Kelby (Nicole Mary Kelby) has been translated into several languages and offered by The Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club. She is the recipient of a Bush Artist Fellowship in Literature, an NEA Inter-Arts grant, the Heekin Group Foundation's James Fellowship for the Novel, both a Florida and Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in fiction, two Jerome Travel Study Grants, and a Jewish Arts Endowment Fellowship.

Her story "Jubilation, Florida" was selected for NPR'S "Selected Shorts," and recorded by Joanne Woodward for the CD Travel Tales, and reprinted in New Stories from the South: Best of 2006 (Algonquin Books).

www.nmkelby.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wacky and entertaining, not your typical fluff!, August 19, 2008

By 

Angy "angyeliz" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill: A Novel (Hardcover)

The jest of the book has been covered already in reviews, but I just wanted to give my take on it. I was officially sick of all the cozy mystery series that seem to have popped up lately so I grabbed this book on a whim. I ended up loving this book, cover to cover. Kelby's writing style reminds me of Christopher Moore (very quick wit and quirky)and her story lines are along the lines of Carl Hiaasen. She manages to make the wacky characters real without being cartoonish. Kelby even manages to give the vultures and shih tsu dog personalities. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Odd but Very Enjoyable, March 31, 2009

By 

Zinc (Midwest USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a very entertaining novel, filled with peculiar but likeable characters. Because they exist in what seems to be a very ordinary community makes them charmingly quirky; it kinds of makes you wonder what is "really" going on with your own neighbors. Although several reviewers have compared her writing to Hiaasen and others, be assured that Ms. Kelby has a writing style and narrative voice of her own, and she presents her cast of characters and their community in a fresh and very engaging way. The mystery involved in this book doesn't have a solution which is overly obvious, so by the time the last page of the book has ended the reader will feel that not only have they read a satisifying story, but also will admire the careful sleuthing the author creatively presented. This is another wonderful story told in the manner only Ms. Kelby can do. If you're reading this review, I encourage you read the book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun!, December 22, 2010

By 

Debbie Seaman (New Canaan, CT USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill: A Novel (Hardcover)

I love Kelby's books, and she is one of perhaps a handful of authors who can make me laugh out loud when I'm reading. This book is no exception.