Summer comes to Astoria Queens. Mia and her crew are busy arranging events and off-site catering gigs. Their very tight schedule is made even more full as an LA reality show is filming a pilot. This is not The Jersey Shore; the The Dons of Ditmars Boulevard will be about gangsters and wannabes to the family. DiRico outdoes herself, providing more layers to the plot than a traditional Italian wedding cake. The twists and turns provide both laughs and tensions, as Mia again is called to solve a murder that threatens both her family and the business. We see more of Donny Jr., who still hasn't found his footing in life. Now assigned to Belle View, Mia can foresee a disaster waiting to happen. Indeed, When the victim was married to Donny's latest flame, he has become the top suspect.

In a change of pace, DiRico moves the setting, from Queens, to the old-money part of Connecticut, to New Orleans, and to penthouses in Manhattan. Each locale offers a party, allowing DiRico to offer more insight into the workings of the business. In a recent online interview, (Lesa's book critiques, June 2022) Maria DiRico, aka Ellen Byron, reflected on how much she enjoys writing this series. Everything in this volume is based on her real life, including the Mafia connections, knowledge of television, and locales. Even Mia's home is based on Byron's own nonna's home in Astoria.
Hilarious, authentic, and with a mystery that is not easily solved. Who could ask for anything more?

This light-hearted cozy kept me smiling. There's murder but there's a lot of love, a lot of family--I could feel the characters genuine care for each other. There's also just the right amount of action. Plenty of drama and an ending I didn't figure out. Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for my advance copy of this funny cozy mystery.

A lot to follow in the 4th installment of the Catering Hall Mystery series.
Too much?
Nope. Not at all. It's fun chaos in Four Parties and a Funeral. Mia takes on catering for a "reality" tv series that follows the over the top stereotyped mafia kids. A fun nod to the "scripted reality" tv shows full of fights, parties, back stabbing, drinking, etc. Mia's friend, and Jamie's brother Donnie, now Little D, falls in love with the creator of the show who runs the production company with her ex-husband. No drama there. (snark!) Mia is asked by the family to keep an eye on Little D. Chaperoning the production didn't stop a murder from happening and Little D becoming the main suspect.

This is fun read for the series. Lots of movement and people to follow. Growth for some characters, their romantic relationships, and just a bunch of people behaving badly. Can it be read as a standalone.? I think so. But I think it would be much more enjoyable to start from the beginning, or at least start with book 3.

4 solid stars out of 5.
2 thumbs up.

Mia Carina lives in Astoria, Queens, and runs her family's catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor. The June events schedule is busting out all over with proms, graduations, and of course, weddings. There are unexpected bookings too, including a casting call for the pilot of Dons of Ditmars Boulevard. Belle View quickly becomes the site of a sea of wanna-be goombahs and phony girlfriends, and some of Mia's friends insist on getting in on the action. The production company owner and his executive producer ex-wife have assembled a motley crew that does as much infighting and backstabbing as the on-screen "talent." Even so, it's a shock when a dead body is found in the pool house of a local mansion rented by the show. But Mia intends to make sure the killer gets jail time, not airtime.
This was a great cozy mystery to curl up to and read. The characters are unique in that I haven't seen too many of them in other stories. They make me laugh with their curious antics. The plot of this story was very entertaining, and it kept me guessing about whodunit until the very end. I recommend this story to anyone who likes a cozy mystery with some humor. thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the honor of reading this advanced reader's copy. This review is my honest opinion.

Four Parties and a Funeral is the fourth book in the Catering Hall Mystery series. This is a fun series with shades of the New Jersey mafia in the past. Each book can be read as a standalone story, but I have enjoyed reading them all and meeting Mia Carina, her family and her friends. Mia runs her family's catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor and is surprised to find the newest event, a TV casting call for the pilot of Dons of Ditmars Boulevard. Soon there are wanna-be goombahs and phony girlfriends, some of them, Mia's friends hanging around the Belle View. With this group, there is constant infighting, jealousy and more, but the final straw leading to an investigation is the death/murder of the show's producer. Can Mia help find the killer before someone else ends up dead?

This was a fun story, with a lot of the stereotypes of Italian wannabe mafia types and their girlfriends flitting around. With one of Mia's friends falling for the new producer, Mia's boyfriend dropping a bombshell and her brother sneaking off from a work excursion organized by the local prison, there is a lot to keep her on her toes. This is a quickly moving story, with clues, red herrings and misdirection sprinkled into the story. I do enjoy the characters and the humor in these books, but I think this was my least favourite of the series so far. If you enjoy a humorous, cozy mystery, set in New York, then you might want to pick up the first book in this series and check it out, or start with this one.

I have enjoyed the books I have read in the Catering Hall series. A great cozy mystery that has you laughing. And the reference to “The Family” has you reading the book with a certain accent. Mia is a great primary character and I enjoyed seeing the relationship with Shane develop. In fact, the characters are well developed and you will find yourself wanting to go to the Belle View Banquet Manor to see what it looks like. A unique view from the typical cozy mystery book but one I think you will enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

This 4th installment in the author's Catering Hall series is entertaining. Lots of fun, with great characters, many of them mob-related, though our sleuth, Mia Carina, runs the catering hall business as a legit business.

The secondary characters bring a lot to the table as well.

I don't particularly care for reality TV but setting this mystery involving a production company filming a mob-based reality TV show called the “Dons of Ditmars Boulevard" made this book quite enjoyable. Loved it!!

Highly recommended!!

Four Parties and a Funeral, the fourth book in Maria DiRico’s Catering Hall Mystery series, is another winner. Fun and exciting from the opening pages, this is one book that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

Mia Carina normally has a busy schedule running the Belle View banquet hall, but now she also has to balance those duties with the hectic calendar of a production company filming a reality television show about the “Dons of Ditmars Boulevard.” Add to that planning a bachelorette bash in New Orleans when the maid of honor abdicates her responsibilities to go to rehab, and it’s easy to see why Mia has her hands more than full. But things get even more complicated when a cast member is murdered and Mia adds catching a killer to her lengthy to-do list.

I love this series. Mia is a terrific character. She is smart, streetwise, and practical. Her family, with its tenuous connection with the “mob” is another story. Her Nonna, Elisabetta, is hysterical, as she foists crocheting projects in clashing colors on Mia and expects her to wear them. The subplot (and mystery) involving Shane added another layer to their relationship, while the trip to New Orleans for the bachelorette event had me vacationing vicariously. But my favorite subplot was the brief interlude involving Mia’s brother Posi. You’ll just have to read it to find out why. Finally, not to be outdone, the murder mystery was superb, with a literal cast of suspects, and motives that were varied and interesting, holding the suspense until the big reveal.

This is a series that gets stronger with each book. And Four Parties and a Funeral is no exception. It is a fantastic book! I am seriously looking forward to the fifth installment, The Witless Protection Program, which is scheduled to be released in March 2024.

Note: I received an ARC of Four Parties and a Funeral from NetGalley and Kensington Books. The above is my honest review.

I may not have enjoyed the previous installment of this series as much as the first two books, mostly because the romance that the book ended with seemed abrupt and a little random. It popped out of nowhere and became something inevitable. This particular (fourth) book in the series managed to make me feel for the pair a little more, and once I accepted them as an established fact, I could relax and enjoy the story a little more this time around.
Our lead protagonist has spent a lot of time and effort to bring her father's legitimate business as far as she has. Mia is not happy when one of the groups vying (and paying) for time at the Belle View is the casting call for a reality show featuring dons and wannabe dons. The ethics of such a show is a little iffy, to say the least, and the kind of people it is gathering on location is not one that Mia wants to be constantly associated with.
The producers are an unlikely pair, and everyone on the team seems to have something to hide or want done their way. When one of the producers ends up dead, things start to heat up. Mia has some additional duties as well that she has to untangle while trying to figure out who did the actual killing.
There is a lot of action, and the final reveal is almost unimportant by the time the end rolls around. I liked the fact that the book picked up pace for me again, and I look forward to the next since I am sure there will be at least one more.
I recommend this series to fans of the genre but would not recommend jumping in at this point. At least the first two books are a must to get the lay of the land and know who everyone is and where they fit into the bigger picture.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This series is growing on me. I am really starting to enjoy the characters a lot more and having fun with it. I am not a huge reality tv type person though so the plot of this one fell a bit flat for me but I still enjoyed the characters.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Days before the wedding of two of Mia’s best friends, the cast and crew of a mob based reality show descends on Belle View. Add murder into extreme high maintenance and you have a recipe for disaster. Combine the two groups and it only gets worse. And then have Mia switch roles from Brides Maid to Maid of Honour with all the responsibilities involved and Mia is about ready to kill someone too.

And that someone might be her boyfriend, whom she discovers, is married. Lies and machinations galore as Mia attempts to keep her sanity and stop more mayhem from overwhelming both the wedding and the show. Between the quirky regular characters and the over the top reality people, it is going to get crazy.

Four purrs and two paws up.

Goombahs are everywhere! None of them are a welcome addition to Mia’s busy catering hall business. But when a reality show comes to town to film a new mob-based show, every wanna-be mobster in the city shows up. It is little wonder that someone ends up dead. It doesn’t take long for Mia and her crew to jump into the deep end, when the victim may only be the first in what is to come, and the wedding season could become the funeral season instead.

The cast of characters in this series are always lively. It is never difficult for readers to picture them, or their locations. The personalities hover between comic books to real life. The location of the catering hall is fun to think about, but I would like to see a broader range of locations in future volumes. Filming a reality show about goombahs is a hilarious idea and will keep readers smiling. The victim is not overly sympathetic but definitely gives off a godfather-style feel. No one is surprised when the killer is unveiled, and the motive is nothing unexpected. If readers enjoy a laugh with a side of snark, along with reality TV ridiculousness, they will love Four Parties and A Funeral. I enjoyed this addition but feel it's time for Mia and her family to find more excitement and less stereotypical madness.

From the beginning, Mia knows a reality show about dons and donnettes (mafia) is not a good idea for her branch of the family - the not-mafia side. Mia has her hands full planning an initial meeting for the "stars" and crew for the show, a prom or two, and then a bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, and memorial service. Shane and Cammie help a lot and then there's Little Donny. The grandfather has already determined Donny won't fit on the illegal side of things and hopes Mia can find him a place.

Reality show tv production and someone's need to have a crisis in every scene make for a great backdrop for a mystery. Mia does her best to keep things under control but that's not always easy. Although Donny is the prime suspect for the murder, she's sure he's innocent and is determined to find the real killer or killers. Throw in grandmother's crochet creations, Shane's secrets, and the wedding party fiasco in New Orleans.

The story is engaging, the plot moves at a good pace, and characters are well-developed. Maybe because I'm not a fan of "reality" tv, I enjoyed this one. Four Parties and a Funeral is the fourth in the series. While readers of previous books learn more about Shane and others, the mystery is stand-alone and easily read on its own.

This is the fourth book in the Catering Hall Mystery series and I always enjoy these shenanigan-rich tales. It was great to be back in bustling Astoria, Queens, New York City for a few hours, to meet the residents there and solve a perplexing mystery.

The primary amateur detective in this one is manager and events organiser Mia Carina. Belle View Banquet Manor is the catering hall that her father has created. This novel in the series is another super one. Maria DiRico is a talented writer and is always able to develop a great whodunit. The characters are brought to life with each and every word. I was really engaged in the mystery from the start. There is a lot happening and a lot of layers and clues to sift through. I continued to warm to Mia, finding her ebullience, confidence and intuitiveness very refreshing. This was a story that held my attention well and I loved that things came together for a clear resolution. Being a culinary cozy, there are some delicious sounding culinary treats within. The interesting growth for the series regulars cements my enthusiasm in anticipating what Maria DiRico has in store for Mia and her family and acquaintances next.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my own request from Kensington Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Let me preface this by saying I had no idea this was the fourth book in a series already, so that could be some of my issue. I found the mystery to be interesting but the plot and characters overwhelming - I felt like I had to take detailed notes to keep the characters straight and t hat made it not as enjoyable.

Four Parties And A Funeral
A Catering Hall Mystery, Book #4
Maria DiRico
5 Stars

Synopsis:

In this fresh and witty cozy mystery series set amid an extended Italian-American family in Astoria, Queens, catering hall owner and amateur sleuth Mia Carina must solve a murder on the set of a reality show.

The June events schedule at Belle View is busting out all over—proms, graduations, and of course, weddings. There are unexpected bookings too, including a casting call for the pilot of Dons of Ditmars Boulevard. But soon, Mia’s fears about the cheesy reality show are confirmed . . .

Belle View quickly becomes the site of a sea of wanna-be goombahs and phony girlfriends, and some of Mia’s friends insist on getting in on the action. The production company owner and his executive producer ex-wife—who’s also very minor British royalty—have assembled a motley crew that does as much infighting and backstabbing as the on-screen “talent.” Even so, it’s a shock when a dead body is found in the pool house of a local mansion rented by the show . . .

Murder might boost the ratings. But Mia intends to make sure the killer gets jail time, not airtime . . .

Italian recipes included!

Review:

Belle View has a number of books to host, including a casting call for a new reality show. The production company owner is counting on the fact that people will be interested in The Dons of Ditmars Boulevard and will make a good show. He did not plan on getting murdered but that is what happened. Now Mia has to figure who the murderer is before they strike again.

The writing flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the beginning. In my mind’s eye I was able to picture the television filming and all that entails. The mystery was well and there were enough clues to sift through and suspects to consider.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Kensington Books, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.

I was caught off guard by the unexpected twist in the book regarding the who-done-it since there seemed to be no prior indication of any communication between the characters involved. As a reader of amateur sleuth mysteries, I prefer to have some hints or clues. The sudden change, which had been running in a straight line with little sub-plotting, left me uncertain whether I liked it.

While Nonna made me chuckle, this book didn't quite hit the mark. The Cammie and Pete relationship felt overused, and Mia and Shane's relationship hiccup was boarding on "oh, poor me". The character of Pozi was entertaining, but I'm not sure what Maria DiRico can do to spice up the next installment. Some changes need to be made to keep the series fresh and engaging.

This is book 4 in the Catering Hall mystery series. Could be read as a stand alone but need a little context from previous books. A mob family in Jersey is going to run a catering hall without mob influence. Mia is in charge and keeping all on the up and up till her uncle wants her to give his son a job. Nick has a spot on a new reality show featuring children of the mob and is actually pretty good at helping out at the hall. When the producer of the show is killed there are many suspects and to save the halls reputation Cam and her boyfriend keep the schedule of graduation parties, birthday parties etc and agree to cater the funeral. A good cozy.

Mia Carena has a love interest, but they’re keeping it quiet since it’s a workplace romance, like no one suspects? Puh-leeze, it’s the worst kept secret ever! On the job, she’s in charge of keeping her father on the straight and narrow, running the Belle View catering hall as a legit business, not a mob front for money laundering. This month their special events are graduations, proms, and weddings. Any drama should be of the usual variety, nothing over the top, at least not anything that leads to a dead body.

There’s a new reality show filming in town, and they’ve hired the Belle View to cater. It sounds like fun until the show’s title is told: The Dons of Ditmars Boulevard. Yes, a show about mobsters, and who better to portray mobsters than members of the Family. What could go wrong?

Little D, a mob son, needs a job but doesn’t want to work. What better place to put him than at the catering hall. It might have been a good idea if he hadn’t fallen for the producer, who is the ex-wife of the CEO of the film company—and who is on the set.

In her personal life, besides the love interest, Mia’s friend Jamie is marrying Madison who has become a friend, and it’s not just for her easy access to makeup and other freebies. Of course, some of the guests will be mobster families, and then there’s a destination bridal shower and bachelor party plus filming for the reality show, but it should go smoothly, right? Sure, if you don’t count the bride getting drunk, jealousy among the guests, rooming with an obnoxious reporter, and there was that dead body before they even left.

Mia’s life has more drama than that on any given day. Add in her father’s new obsession with exercise, her boyfriend’s aversion to bachelor parties, and her grandmother’s new hobby of crocheting clothing items out of garish colors of itchy yarn, and Mia’s got her hands full.

This is book three in the series. Mia’s relationship shows promise, mostly. Keeping Little D’s mob boss father happy is a tightrope walk. Teri, the annoying reporter, tries to act human but falls short. Still, you have to give her credit for trying. To know how the reality show goes, you’ll just have to read the book.

Maria DiRico is the pen name for Ellen Byron. This is one of her best books yet! Can’t wait for number four.

I really loved this book in a new to my series and author. I can't wait to read the next one. The characters and location really add to the plot. This book keeps you guessing until the end