OUR LADY OF IMMACULATE DECEPTION, by Nancy Martin

You might think this is going to be a funny story a la Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum; well, it ain't. We've all known - or have been, or maybe even still are - toughies like Roxy Abruzzo: she's seen too much, heard too much, all at too early an age to understand or escape. Now as an adult, she's prickly and feisty, a tough-love (or worse) mother, but author Martin has given her enough humanity to capture a reader's interest. Roxy runs a salvage business, which leads her to the occasional lapse of honesty, particularly the removal of an old marble statue from a murdered client's estate. Turns out the statue is priceless, a genuine BC Greek art work. The family of the deceased - all weird, all millionaires -  want the statue. As does a mysterious killer who's driven to more murder to keep secrets and get the statue. With a charming but scheming lawyer, a drug-addled art lover and a granny who fakes comas, and lots of compelling reasons to act as she does, Roxy finally comes face to face with the murderer...but on whose terms? I'll give this a 3.5; you might give it more...or less. What do you think of the title? Does it have anything to do with the story? For me, it was misleading, just a catchy title that didn't have a thing to do with the story. What'd I miss??

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