Dutch Me Deadly

December 5, 2011
Agatha Award–finalist Hunter’s mildly amusing seventh Passport to Peril mystery (after 2007’s Norway to Hide) takes tour guide Emily Andrew-Miceli and a group of feisty, smartphone-savvy senior Iowans, including her streetwise grandmother, to Holland. Joining the troubled tour are members of a squabbling, antisocial high school class from Bangor, Maine, celebrating their 50th reunion. When the snippy Kansan tour director, Charlotte, stumbles off an Amsterdam sidewalk into the path of a bicyclist with fatal results, Emily suspects Charlotte’s death was no accident, especially since so many Mainers were nearby who could have given her a push. As the body count rises, a flustered Emily does some covert sleuthing, aided by her transsexual ex-husband, who suddenly appears out of nowhere. This generic cozy offers the usual stock characters and situations. Agent: Irene Goodman.

January 1, 2012
A tour guide leaves a trail of violent death in her wake as she escorts seniors on journeys abroad. You'd think Emily Andrew-Miceli's group of Iowa golden-agers, including her grandma, would be put off by the fact that all the trips she escorts (Norway to Hide, 2007, etc.) lead to murder. But they actually seem to relish the chance to play amateur sleuths. This time out they're visiting Holland, sharing a bus and tour guide with a group from Maine who are celebrating a class reunion. The tour guide is a martinet whose death by bicycle isn't entirely unwelcome. The fatality seems like an accident, but Emily is suspicious. The group from Maine are bickering and seem to be hiding a secret from their shared past. Not to be outdone, Emily's crew face disaster when they accidentally imbibe drug-laced desserts and spend a wild night in Amsterdam's red-light district. The arrival of Emily's ex-husband, a flamboyant transsexual currently teaching life skills to an aspiring writer, adds to her anguish. As more deaths follow, Emily and her texting-obsessed geriatric helpers realize that they'll have to take prompt and decisive action before their whole trip is ruined. A bit of humor, a bit of travel information and a bit of mystery add up to some pleasant light reading.

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