NAUGHTY ON ICE is the fourth book in Maia Chance's Discreet Retrieval Agency historical mystery series set during the 1920s. Readers, like me, who are new to the series will still be able to enjoy this story. Private detectives are no stranger to shady characters looking to buy help, but in NAUGHTY ON ICE, Lola Woodby and Berta Lundgren receive a cryptic invitation from an anonymous potential client hiring them to retrieve a stolen ring by stealing it back from the original thief. The request is a novel one, but the ladies need the cash, so they travel to Goddard Farm in a snow-covered small town in Vermont. This book is a hoot and entertaining from start to finish.

For much of NAUGHTY ON ICE, Lola and Berta are in a very difficult position. Nobody steps forward to admit to hiring them, the local sergeant looks upon them with an extremely suspicious eye, and none of the victim's friends or family want them around or to answer their questions. These two beleaguered sleuths clomp around the snow and slush of this rural small town trying to get people to talk and find clues. The many ways that suspects and witnesses rebuff the detectives are amusing and part of what makes this book so much fun. At one point, the Big Foot-like legendary character Slipperyback becomes a potential suspect and source of mischief. Lola and Berta might be a little more Daphne and Velma than Holmes and Watson, but they are tenacious and unearth the rightful villain in the end. Maia Chance litters the picturesque winter wonderland full of likely suspects and outlandish characters, both humorous and sinister.

NAUGHTY ON ICEis a dynamite mystery full of laughs and lurking villains. The elderly and amorous Maple Hill Alpine Club co-presidents are a comforting and comedic "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern." The victim's creepy son Fenton is like a character out of the classic film ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. Lola's fellow detective honey Ralph Oliver is a welcome addition in hunting down clues and bad guys. I look forward to Maia Chance's next Discreet Retrieval Agency book.

Book Summary

The next in Maia Chance’s dazzlingly fun Prohibition-era caper series featuring society matron Lola Woodby and her stalwart Swedish cook, Berta.

The Discreet Retrieval Agency is doing a brisk holiday business of retrieving lost parcels, grandmas, and stolen wreaths. But with their main squeezes Ralph and Jimmy once more on the back burner, both Lola and Berta pine for a holiday out of New York City. So when they receive a mysterious Christmas card requesting that they retrieve an antique ring at a family gathering in Maple Hill, Vermont, they jump at the chance. Sure, the card is signed Anonymous and it’s vaguely threatening, but it’s Vermont.

In Maple Hill, several estranged members of the wealthy Goddard family gather. And no sooner do Lola and Berta recover the ring—from Great-Aunt Daphne Goddard’s arthritic finger—than Mrs. Goddard goes toes-up, poisoned by her Negroni cocktail on ice. When the police arrive, Lola and Berta are caught-red-handed with the ring, and it becomes clear that they were in fact hired not for their cracker-jack retrieving abilities, but to be scapegoats for murder.

With no choice but to unmask the killer or be thrown in the slammer, Lola and Berta’s investigations lead them deep into the secrets of Maple Hill. There, they must find out once and for all who’s nice...and who’s naughty.