Rehearsed to Death

by Frank Anthony Polito

Overview

Award-winning author and playwright Frank Anthony Polito continues his debut cozy mystery series featuring a gay couple who solve crimes while renovating houses as part of their hit reality show Domestic Partners. Set in suburban Detroit, it's Hart to Hart via HGTV! The perfect combination for fans of home repair and cozy mysteries.

Peter’s first play is having its world premiere at Pleasant Woods’s community theater. His handsome one and only, JP, has the lead. Rehearsals have begun. And New York City’s award-winning, hotshot helmer, Xander Sherwood Deva, is directing. Unfortunately the controlling, arrogant, poison-barbed, egomaniacal diva has everyone on edge. No wonder he finallypushes someone over it . . .
 
Xander is found strangled to death in the same extra-long, imported cashmere scarf he’s been brandishing like a boa ever since he arrived. In the name of making art he’s burned a lot of bridges and made a lot of enemies but which one wanted to bring down the curtain on him?
 
As they say in the theater: the show must go on. But not before amateur sleuths Peter and JP become Domestic Partners in Crime and try to solve this deadly real-life drama ahead of opening night.
 
 
Praise for Renovated to Death
 
“Quirky [and] humorous.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“A fast, fun read—with bonus renovating tips!”
--Laura Levine, author of Death by Smoothie

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496735614
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Series:	A Domestic Partners in Crime Mystery , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	384 KB

About the Author

Frank Anthony Polito is an award-winning author and playwright. His novels include Band Fags!, Remembering Christmas and TheSpirit of Detroit, among many others, and his plays have been produced around the country. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon and a BFA in Theatre from Wayne State. Currently he resides in historic Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, with his partner, Craig Bentley, and their two dogs, Jack and Clyde. They live in a 1924 Craftsman Colonial that they purchased on HGTV’s House Hunters and have been renovating together since 2013. Readers can visit his website at www.frankanthonypolito.com.
 

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR RENOVATED TO DEATH

“Playwright and novelist Polito’s new series is built on a solid foundation that consists of an eclectic cast of characters (including a police detective whose professional cluelessness rivals that of Sheriff Amos Tupper from Murder She Wrote), a close-knit community setting in the form of a posh suburb of Detroit, and a leisurely paced plot with a killer twist…Not since Sarah Graves’s Jake Tiptree mysteries has home remodeling been so deadly entertaining.” —Library Journal
 
“[A] sprightly cozy from Lambda Award winner Polito…Some crackerjack renovation tips, including the proper procedure for refinishing woodwork, will appeal to DIY enthusiasts.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“Polito debuts a cozy featuring a gay couple who get entangled in a murder…Quirky, humorous.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Renovated to Death by Frank Anthony Polito might just be the perfect cozy mystery.” —PopSugar

“A fast, fun read—with bonus renovating tips!” —Laura Levine, author of Murder Gets a Makeover

“The fabulous and fun Domestic Partners in Crime in this wildly entertaining new home makeover murder mystery don’t cut corners on the laughs or suspense with suspects coming out of the woodwork! You’ll want to both love it and list it as your favorite new cozy series!” —Lee Hollis, author of Death of an Ice Cream Scooper

“The real estate market is hot and so is Frank Anthony Polito’s debut mystery, Renovated to Death. If you’re addicted to HGTV, if you’ve dreamed of flipping a house, or even if your DIY skills are limited to changing a lightbulb, you’ll enjoy this trip to Pleasant Woods—where no one’s ever been murdered, until now!” —Leslie Meier, author of Easter Bonnet Murder
 
“Renovated to Death is an amusing mystery set in a rapidly gentrifying suburb of Detroit, featuring a largely gay cast of characters and narrated by mystery writer Peter, who cohosts a home renovation show with his actor partner JP. After a suspicious death occurs in the home they are scheduled to remodel on the next season of their show, they get caught up in trying to solve the mystery. An entertaining cozy read!” —Carol, Schuler Books
 
“Fun new mystery series about a home renovation show set in Michigan with LGBTQ main characters.” —Lisa Joyce, South Portland Public Library
 
“This is an absolute delight and exactly the breath of fresh air cozies need. A recommended purchase for all collections where mysteries are popular.” —Elle P., Worcester Public Library

From the Publisher

2023-03-28
Serious actors and drag queens compete for space in an amusing whodunit.

JP Broadway and Peter Penwell have scored a hit with Domestic Partners, their HGTV show, which shows them renovating the house they bought in the fictional Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods. But Pete has a bad feeling about his new play, which is about to be produced by the Royal Heights Players. The original director, Vicky Marshall, has been pushed aside by Xander Sherwood Deva, a hotshot who has the connections to get Blue Tuesday a New York opening. Unfortunately, Xander turns out to be an autocratic, mean-spirited, demanding fashionista who’s no fun to work with. A series of rocky auditions eventually leads to a cast that includes Pete and JP’s next-door neighbor Bob Kravitz, who's driven to quit by Xander’s insistence that he's gay though he says he's not. Xander refuses to let Vicky’s protégé Rusty Doyle—whose most recent performances have been at Drag Queen Queeraoke—even audition, and once rehearsals start, he drives everyone crazy with his petty demands and harsh criticisms. So it’s no great surprise when Hunter Bellamy, Xander’s latest lover, finds him dead in the theater. It looks like his extra-long scarf was caught in some fan blades and accidentally strangled him, but Pete’s not convinced because he knows there’s a long list of people, himself included, who won’t miss the abrasive director. Pete writes mysteries, JP’s played a cop, and they’ve already solved one murder, so in a last-minute attempt to save the play, they start looking at all the people who may have done the deed.

Just the thing for those who love TV renovation shows.

Kirkus Reviews