A HARD BARGAIN

Marguerite Gavin doesn’t disappoint in her presentation of Jane Tesh's second installment in her Maddy Maclin Investigations series. Maddy, a reformed beauty queen, must solve the mysteries of small-town Celosia, North Carolina, while trying to avoid the "pageantoids,” former fans determined to get her back into the pageant game. The mysteries include a lost umbrella, a found box of money, the long-ago death of her love interest's parents, and the question of whether the town is really haunted by a creature known as "Mantis Man." No one delivers wry humor better than the honey-voiced Gavin. A.C.P. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2012]