Synopsis:
Kit O'Malley is back - tougher, smarter and more dangerous than ever. Kit is on the scene when a corpse is found at her local bar. Is it a simple case of payback between two major crime families? Or is there a more sinister third party involved?

Sending to catsalive as part of one of my "clear some space" 3kg bag RABCKs for postage.

Thanks c-t.

cover:
It's not just her smart mouth that gets Kit O'Malley into trouble... When a bloodless corpse turns up on the dance floor of her favourite bar, she's got no choice but to help her friend Angie, the bar's owner. The presence of Detective-Sergeant Graham Parker does nothing to reassure her the real killer will be found...

When it's revealed the corpse belongs to a member of a notorious Melbourne crime family, a bad situation gets a whole lot worse. Is Melbourne heading for a violent gang war? As she picks her way through the city's underworld, dealing with characters like Doghouse Dixon and Will Thumpya, Kit ends up in the kitchen of crime matriarch Queenie Riley.

The PI with the mean right hook knows how to look after herself but asking the right questions of the wrong people sees Kit's friends dragged into serious danger. Kit finds personal life and work life tangling as she struggles to stay on top of events fast moving beyond her control...

I really enjoyed this book. I've not read Lindy Cameron before but I will be looking out for more. There's a lot of humour in here - not laugh-out-loud funny, but I found myself grinning internally quite frequently. Well-written & great language, too. Kit has an excellent vocabulary & she's quite prepared to use it.

I found Kit's wild cogitations on about events relating to her investigations highly entertaining. She reminds me of Christie's Ariadne Oliver in this mannerism. The characters are excellent & well-sketched, most of them likeable - except for the ones we're not meant to like. Kit is both strong & vulnerable, amusing & serious, intelligent, educated, tough & willing to accept help when she needs it. I can't help liking her & her friends.

A diverting & pleasurable experience.

For the 2016 Australian Women Writers Challenge.

Sent to camis for the Best of 2016 swap.