Murdered, my sweet Book

Jennifer Jakes is an unusual teenage sleuth, unusual in the sense that she solves mysteries behind the scenes, manipulating her mother's role as a well-known mystery writer turned detective in real life. Jenny loves her Mom and does not grudge her the acclaim she gets as a great detective. As an author, Madeline Jakes is great, but as a 'hands on' detective, she hasn't a clue. Jenny, on the other hand, has grown up on her late father's collection of detective novels, and tales of hands on police investigation and procedure from her uncle Police Detective Bill. Madeline Jake's reputation as a detective owes its fame to the TV watching public who revel in 'detective writer turned real life sleuth' TV serials. She herself, is supremely unaware of her brainy daughter's help at every step, and tends to imagine that she picks up clues on her own. Her supreme gift is the art of giving an enigmatic smile, which quite often results in the guilty parties imagining that she has guessed their secrets, and blurting out the truth. But adding up all the clues to reach the solution is left to Jennifer. Only a few astute people guess the truth, behind Madeline's undoubted success.
Set in picturesque San Antonio, in the midst of the spring fiesta, an invitation to the reading of Madeline's billionaire cousin Arnold Harmony's will on his eighty-eighth birthday at a comfortable Paseo del Rio (Riverwalk) hotel, the family gathering together with executives from Harmony Chocolates, Arnold's Company, turns into a tense, suspicion riddled murder mystery, with Jenny and her new found boyfriend, Carlos, journalism student turned bellboy for the vacation, having many near escapes from death, while pursuing the suspects. A fun read.