Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Trudy, Madly, Deeply (Working Stiffs Mystery Series), by Wendy Delaney, is a detective story featuring Charmaine Digby, a thirty-something divorcee who's moved back home, up to the Pacific Northwest. She's staying with her grandmother and working at her great-uncle's coffee shop. Char is ready for a new career after years in the cooking world.

She's hired by the Chimacum County Prosecutor who is intrigued by Char's innate and lab-tested ability to tell when people are lying. Her first job involves interviewing a doctor at the local hospital, who's not sure that the sudden death of Trudy Bergeson, a close-friend of Char's Aunt Alice, was of natural causes. This interview sets Char off on a series of investigations as she tries to find out if Trudy's death was just one of a series of murders and who could be the serial killer in their midst.

Trudy, Madly, Deeply is a fast-paced and enjoyable mystery. Char's sleuthing is inspired and comedic all at the same time. Char is an endearing character who doesn't take herself too seriously and doesn't seem to expect that anyone else should either. She's also surrounded by a great cast of supporting characters: from Frankie Rickard, the pragmatic, no-nonsense prosecutor, to the staff at the local senior center where Tango Tuesdays are a hot item, to the sultry and sometimes stern childhood friend, Steve, who seems to get Char's pulse racing no matter how hard she tries not to show it.

Delaney throws out a decent number of red herrings as Char gropes her way to the identity of the killer and makes solving the mystery a highly enjoyable task for all.