Sex On Murder Island (publication day June 30, 2026) is Jo Firestone’s second Luella van Horn mystery. Luella is the private investigator alter ego of former Staten Island social worker Marie Jones. PI jobs have been slow to come by. She can’t afford her rent, so she has to move in the middle of summer, but soon someone tracks her down for a job. It happens to be on Murder Island, one of the small islands off the coast of New York City.
Murder Island is completely privately owned by a few uber-wealthy families with mansions, and the ferry only goes there once a day. Luella (who is Marie in a blonde wig) chats with the First Mate on the ferry, who warns her that wild parties with things she probably can’t imagine happen on Murder Island. When she gets to her client’s mansion, he’s very odd, and the job is for Luella to prove that his wife is having an affair. She is to masquerade as a distant cousin of his.
Things degenerate from there. It reminded me a little of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, which I enjoyed at the beginning but I lost interest somewhere in the teens–there’s only so long an author can successfully spin out the comedy of a bumbling female PI, nevermind the fact that Evanovich includes way too much anti-fat bias and fat stereotypes.
I didn’t note any anti-fatness specifically in Sex on Murder Island, thankfully, but I didn’t find it to be terribly funny or clever, either. Luella/ Marie kind of annoyed me with her ineptitude, and there were so many characters it was difficult to keep them straight, even though there was a list at the beginning of the book.
There were some amusing situations, and I’m sure others will find it hilarious, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Thanks to NetGalley for the e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
Reading While Fat 