Presley Parker is praying that her party planning business, Killer Parties, has potential promise. The mayor of San Francisco's office has tapped her to plan the mayor's "surprise" wedding, which is being touted as the event of the year. The location -- Alcatraz Island. The theme -- come as your favorite criminal or crime solver. But before the "I do's" can be said, the bride bolts, and Presley's big party deflates like one of the many festive balloons hung from the prison cells.

When the runaway bride washes up on the beach of Treasure Island, near Presley's condo, the police become interested. When Presley's rival party planner Andrea Sax turns up dead on her way to Treasure Island, Presley becomes a person of interest and has to start hustling to clear her name. Penny Warner serves up light-hearted cozy mystery with her series debut HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY: A Party Planning Mystery. Her heroine, Presley Parker, is a former psychology professor who, after being down-sized from her position, has had her life turned upside down. Her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Presley has had to move to cheaper housing, and her future prospects seem dim. So she decides to take a page from her former society maven mother's handbook, "How To Host A Killer Party," and become a party planner. She recruits her neighbors to help her out with events, and this crew of eccentric personalities band together to help Presley prove her innocence after the prison party fiasco.

Presley's love interest, crime scene cleaner/private investigator Brad Matthews is an intelligent, thoughtful hero for the hapless Presley, and in a story that has as many twists and turns as Lombard Street, a sturdy hero comes in handy.

With a promising progression of peculiar plots, and a plethora of party planning pointers, HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY looks to be a pleasant prospect for cozy mystery lovers.

Book Summary

Don't let murder crash your party.

Presley Parker was just happy to get her party planning business off the ground. Now she's gotten the gig of the year, planning Mayor Davin Green's sumptuous "surprise" wedding for his socialite fiancée, to be held on Alcatraz.

But when the bride is found floating in the bay and the original party planner is found murdered, Presley becomes the prime suspect. If the attractive crime scene cleaner, Brad Matthews, doesn't help her tidy her reputation, she'll be exchanging her formal wear for prison stripes...