Reviewed by Rosetta Diane Hoessli, Author
***** (Five Stars)
FROM THE COVER:
Everyone wanted her dead…but who actually killed her? The last thing swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected was to discover ruthless buying office big wig Bunny Frank's corpse trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with a bikini stuffed down her throat. When Holly's colleague is arrested for Bunny's murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to find the real killer. Nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she matches wits with a wily murderer hellbent for revenge.
DEATH BY SAMPLE SIZE is just plain fun. Take a look at this cover and you’ll know I’m right.
The first book I read in Susie Black’s hilarious Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series was RAG LADY, which was released in November 2023, nearly two years after the first book in the series, DEATH BY SAMPLE SIZE, came out (2021). I don’t usually read cozy mysteries and really didn’t think I’d read beyond the prequel – but I loved RAG LADY so much, I’m in the process of reading all five books in the series, in order. (In my opinion, you should begin with RAG LADY if you haven’t read any of them yet. It’s a beautiful standalone novel that fills in all the blanks and adds meat to the regular characters.)
Holly Schlivnik, a Ditzy Swimwear sales exec and our heroine in each book, is so sarcastic and funny that I found myself writing down some of her thoughts and comments just so I wouldn’t forget them. The author, Susie Black, uses her own background in the fashion industry to create unforgettable characters that had me laughing out loud – including, even, the bad guys.
Written in the first person, Holly Schlivnik is hilarious. She's vertically challenged (4’9” – picture, she says, a barber pole having a child with a fire hydrant), but she more than makes up for her height issues with Attitude. She's definitely relatable because, for one thing, she's genetically predisposed on her nana’s side to laugh hysterically at the sight of a dead body, and I so relate to that. And she seems to be eternally optimistic because, to her, pizza, ice cream, and a huge glass of Chardonnay makes any kind of day a perfect one.
This tiny firebrand is the lucky gal to discover our victim, fashion executive Bunny Frank, dead in an elevator with a size-10 bikini stuffed in her mouth. But Holly declares to a determined detective, Miguel Martinez, that the real question isn’t, Who wanted her dead? The real question is, Who didn’t?
Everybody, including Holly herself, has a reason to hate this sales bigshot who has given an all-new meaning to the slogan, Follow the Money.
I mean, this lady is BAD. She’s not above blackmail, bribery, sleeping around, stalking – you name it, she does it. The only person without a motive seems to be an ancient security guard who never responds to anything because he’s always watching novellas on Estrella TV.
Ms. Black has a ball tossing in red herrings galore and dressing them up to become some of the funniest characters ever, while moving the story along at a fast pace via short chapters and no extra words. When two office lotharios (and main suspects) beat the crap out of each other, her descriptions and ensuing toothless dialogue had me wiping away tears of laughter. She takes her time describing people you’ll only see once (but hope to meet again in subsequent stories), using their physicality, unique quirks, and irreverent character traits to guarantee they’ll stand out long after you’ve closed the book.
This is a character-driven story with a not-too-complicated plot, but an ending I didn’t see coming.
Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to DEATH BY SAMPLE SIZE. I’m giving it 5 stars.