chez_jae

A Deadly Tail by Dixie Lyle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Stayed up a tad late last night to finish reading A Deadly Tail by Dixie Lyle. It's the fourth book in the "Whiskey, Tango & Foxtrot" mystery series, featuring Deirdre "Foxtrot" Lancaster, her spectral dog Whiskey, and the latest incarnation of her cat, Tango.

Foxtrot is used to dealing with the weird and unusual as the personal assistant to billionaire Zelda "ZZ" Zoransky, but zombies take the cake. Fortunately for all involved, the zombies are costumed actors in a movie being filmed on the grounds of ZZ's mansion. Unfortunately, Whiskey's keen nose detects that one of the corpses is real. Close on the heels of such a gruesome discovery, there is an explosion in the mansion, and one of the stars of the movie is gravely injured. Foxtrot is convinced the two incidents are related, but she's content to let the police handle the investigation...until Eli, the ghostly crow who oversees the animal cemetery abutting ZZ's property, tasks Foxtrot with looking into the matter.

Trying to conduct a subtle investigation while massaging Hollywood-sized egos would be bad enough, but Foxtrot must also deal with disruptions at the animal cemetery, most of which are being caused by her cat. Tango has the movie bug and wants to rally the animal ghosts into a production of her own. Foxtrot is going to have her hands full trying to juggle two impending disasters at once, but that's what ZZ pays her for.

I enjoy these stories, but this has been my least favorite so far. I didn't like that there were two main plots, rather than one primary plot with some subplots thrown in. Reading the story was like watching Pong on hyperspeed. Guh. I also didn't like ( Spoilers )

Favorite lines:
♦ He made the word cat sound like a euphemism for an unspeakable act of depravity.
♦ When I'm caught in a flat-out lie, I sometimes revert to corporate-speak as a defense mechanism--which is stupid. It's like treading water when you realize a shark is circling you. It might buy you a little time, but does nothing to reduce your profile as an Unhappy Meal.
♦ "A cat...a cat is chaos unbridled. A cat is mischief wrapped in deviousness. A cat is the embodied potential for disaster on four silent paws. They are impulsive, contrary, self-centered, and oblivious to consequences."
♦ "Really?! I'm shocked. What a shocking piece of shocking news that has totally shocked me. Also, I'm shocked. Shockingly."
♦ "A cat is never hapless. We are hap-rich. We're hap-hap-happy. We have so much hap that large hap corporations are hiring us to oversee their hap operations."
♦ "You're not going to stab me, are you?" // "Not right now. I'm not wearing my stabby clothes."
♦ It's hard to argue with the optimism of a dead bear in a tutu. Especially one carrying a unicycle.
♦ "I do believe that's the most frightening look I've ever seen cross your face, Foxtrot. It's like that scene in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, when he first gets the idea to give the gift of home invasion to all the Whos."
♦ I had plenty of suspects and lots of motive, but nothing really concrete. In fact, what I had was the approximate consistency of Silly Putty, but not as clever. Stupid Putty, if you will.

As usual, a laugh-out-loud romp, but the ending sort of ruined it. Giving this one a four.

I finished reading To Die Fur last night. It's the second book in author Dixie Lyle's "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" mystery series.

Deirdre "Foxtrot" Lancaster's boss, zany billionaire ZZ, has agreed to house a rare white liger at her exotic menagerie until a new home can be found for him. Several people from around the world are invited to ZZ's estate to make a pitch as to which of them should be allowed to claim Augustus. Unfortunately, before ZZ can decide, the liger is dead, and it's up to Foxtrot to find out who did it. As it turns out, that's the least of her worries. Augustus was more than he seemed, and now two big cat deities are squabbling over whether or not Augustus should go to the great beyond for lions or for tigers. Foxtrot is kept busy with things in the mortal realm, as well as with all the happenings in the ethereal realm. She is helped along the way by her telepathic cat, Tango, and her shape shifting dog, Whiskey, as well as her boyfriend Ben...the Thunderbird.

The only sure thing is that Foxtrot is going to be busy.

While the premise was unique, in that it was an animal that was "murdered", rather than a person, I must go on record as saying that bothered me. Even though we later see Augustus' spirit romping and having a good time, it still bothered me. Aside from that, the book was fun and exciting and humorous.

Favorite lines (and there were a lot!):
♦ "Yes, Ben, they're werepeople. Please don't call the police if you see a naked man rooting through the garbage or a nude woman up in a tree."
♦ 'That's not a strange name. I knew a terrier once named Princess Boopsie Loopsy Quimbasket Biscuit Barrel the Third.'
♦ "I do believe I'll turn in early, myself; if I'm going to be murdered while I sleep, I'd like to be well rested. Terribly difficult to hide bags under your eyes when you're dead."
♦ 'Cats don't die; they burgle the afterlife.'
♦ I heard Whiskey whine. Which was a funny sentence when you thought about it, but I didn't because I was a little too shook up by the sound of the world ending.
♦ I was pretty sure I now qualified as a professional in the field of weird; when part of your daily responsibilities was eavesdropping on a conversation between a dead liger and his god over the existence of squeaky toys in Heaven, I really doubted I could find anything stranger to put on my resume.
♦ It was a word that didn't need any others to sound scary; it was a whole badass gang all by itself. It probably beat up other words and stole their punctuation.
♦ "I'm a chef. I blame string cheese for everything."
♦ "My body doesn't react well to bullets. I tend to break out in hospital bills and sporadic fits of death."
♦ He looked like someone with a royal flush who'd just discovered he was playing Go Fish.

Wow, so many zingers! I could have listed more, but it was getting out of hand.

Overall, a good story--four stars:

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