Homicide and Old Lace

by Dolores Johnson

Overview

A dry cleaner-turned-amateur sleuth investigates her ex-husband when his new wife-to-be turns up dead in this cozy mystery.

There’s nothing unusual about a young bride entrusting Mandy Dyer with her wedding dress. Mandy runs a dry cleaners—her customers bring in gowns all the time. But when Mandy realizes the bride-to-be is marrying her womanizing ex-husband, she sees red—especially when she discovers the bride stabbed to death in her bridal suite. With Larry as the prime suspect, Mandy is up to her neck in her ex’s dirty laundry once more. Only this time, the stink of it is even worse. Putting her sleuthing skills to use, Mandy is determined to make sure that whoever killed this innocent woman gets their just deserts. And Mandy most certainly doesn’t mean wedding cake . . .

Praise for Dolores Johnson and the Mandy Dyer Mysteries

“Delightful. Good, clean fun.” —Dorothy Cannell, author of The Thin Woman

“Dolores Johnson writes with wit and panache. I love her sense of humor.” —Diane Mott Davidson, New York Times–bestselling author of the Goldy Bear Culinary Mysteries

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798337201634
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	07/15/2025
Pages:	233
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dolores Johnson was a journalist who worked for newspapers in Oregon, California, Wyoming, and Colorado. Her experience as a field reporter for American Drycleaner magazine helped her write the Mandy Dyer Mystery series. Her first novel, Taken to the Cleaners, was published in 1997. She passed away in 2010.

Editorial Reviews

A delightful series...droll and irreverent.

The Midwest Book Review

Just the ticket for mystery lovers.

Mystery Scene

Enjoyable.

Poisoned Pen

Johnson [has] a quick wit.

Denver Post

Dolores Johnson writes with wit and panache. I love her sense of humor.

Diane Mott Davidson

She is a nice, wholesome looking person who owns Dyer's Cleaners in Denver. Somehow, in some unexplainable way her business seems to attract trouble like a giant magnet lures steel. More than once, Mandy Dyer has become embroiled in a homicide investigation. It starts when Olivia Torkelson enters the store to pick up an antique wedding dress serviced by Mandy. After Olivia's first fitting, Mandy learns her patron's fiance is Larry Landy, her philandering former spouse who dumped the cleaner for another woman. Mandy vows to avoid Larry, but fails when she is forced to deliver the dress on the day of the wedding. In the bridal suite, Mandy finds a dead Olivia with scissors stuck in her back. Larry stands over the corpse before he accuses Mandy of murder. Soon a second former lover of Larry dies. All the evidence points to Mandy as the killer, leaving the embattled cleaner working twice as hard as usual, which is one hell of a pace, to clear her name. All the previous Mandy Dyer amateur sleuth tales have been a delight to read, but the newest one, Homicde And Old Lace, is the best of the lot. The story contains a witty mystery that at times deliciously turns to the absurd due to two fascinating supporting cast members, an ex-bag lady and the heroine's pampered mother. That duo forms one of the oddest partnerships in the mystery world. Delores Johnson's "Fatal Attraction" plot works because readers will not know who the stealth stalker is until the climax.
—Internet Book Watch

Internet Book Watch