The Fruit of Lies: A Chautauqua Murder Mystery (Mimi Goldman Chautauqua Mysteries Book 6)

The Fruit of Lies is the sixth book in Deb Pines’ traditional whodunit Chautauqua Mysteries featuring the wise and witty reporter sleuth of a certain age Mimi Goldman.

“An Agatha Christie for the text-message age,” IndieReader calls the series.

When tyrannical billionaire Thomas C. Whistler drowns in a Japanese soaking tub in his Chautauqua McMansion in July 2018, was it an accident?

The police aren’t sure. A note from the dead energy-bar magnate and phony TED Talk speaker says, “Don’t let my killer get away with it.”

Reporter and relentless snoop Mimi Goldman digs in. She questions Whistler’s guilty-looking heirs, his seven glib and greedy kids, including: an ambitious actor, a building contractor, a Shakespearean scholar, a socialite and daughter with Down syndrome.

Assisted by her computer-savvy son Jake and her 92-year-old sidekick (and wheelman) Sylvia Pritchard, Mimi even leaves Chautauqua this time to poke around nearby pawnshops and Lily Dale, a spooky spiritualist community.

Mimi feels like she’s getting nowhere — until someone runs Sylvia’s car off the road, landing the pair of persistent gumshoes in a ditch.

Battered but hopeful, Mimi reexamines old clues and lies until she realizes the sad truth of this case — in time to say “I do” to her devoted beau Walt.

Fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny and Elly Griffiths and “Only Murders in the Building” will enjoy this twist-filled mystery Kirkus Reviews calls, “A breezy distraction that will keep readers guessing.”