ACCESSORIES TO DIE FOR

4 stars out of 5

Every once in a while, I do enjoy kicking back with a cozy mystery; there's usually a decent story with enough action to keep me interested while leaving my fingernails intact. The only downside, for me, is that the main character too often is borderline silly - never listening to anyone while she (it's almost always a female) sticks her nose into everybody's business and whines when something she says or does goes wrong. Thankfully, that isn't the case with former New York assistant District Attorney Irene Seligman. She's quite intelligent, sensible and capable of dealing with situations and people.

Except, that is, her mother Adelle; a more truly obnoxious character I haven't come across in a long time and will be content never to see again. She goes miles beyond the quintessential Jewish mother - and to the very end it remains a mystery to me why Irene agreed to leave her big city career and come home to Sante Fe, New Mexico, to "take care of" her. Oy!

But come home Irene did, and now she's operating a consignment shop selling high-end discards, many courtesy of Adelle's snooty friends. The store, called Irene's Closet, is in the historic Native American part of the city; and it is in this arena that much of the story takes root. Local jewelry-maker Juanita Calabaza is beside herself trying to locate her missing son Danny, who's one misstep away from gang life and drug addiction. Juanita fears that Danny stole a sacred tribal necklace, then sold it to a shady French artifacts dealer to finance his drug habit. She'd be happy to see the guy dead, she says - and prophetically, that's exactly what happens. Now she's in the crosshairs of the police, who consider Juanita their No. 1 suspect.

Irene, though, believes otherwise; no way her friend Juanita murdered anyone - her only goal is to find her son before he, too, turns up in the morgue. Meantime (while trying to placate her mother's constant demands - Lordy, what a pain she is), Irene's "friend" P.J. Bailey, a successful criminal lawyer gets into the act because he represents clients who insist they were ripped off by the French guy. I suspect Irene and P.J. are supposed to be in the throes of romantic tension, but I must say nothing either of them said or did made me believe there's any hope whatsoever for any such liaison. P.J. is far more likable than Adelle (but then so are at least half the people in the entire world), but still, I'd never allow his shoes anywhere near the underside of my bed.

There are plenty of false starts, chases and starts as well as very interesting information about local Native American history and customs. Since this is one of a series, I don't think I'll spoil anything by saying that Irene remains relatively unscathed at the end - ready, no doubt, for another adventure. I'm up for it as well - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this one.

Accessories to Die For by Paula Paul (Random House LLC, December 2017); 180 pp.