Great idea for a book and really well executed. A thoroughly good read. Highly recommended. .

"After her philandering husband died and left her penniless in Prohibition-era New York, Lola Woodby escaped with her Swedish cook to the only place she could―her deceased husband’s secret love nest in the middle of Manhattan. Her only comforts were chocolate cake, dime store detective novels, and the occasional highball (okay, maybe not so occasional). But rent came due and Lola and Berta were forced to accept the first job that came their way, leading them to set up shop as private detectives operating out of Alfie’s cramped love nest.

Now Lola and Berta are in danger of losing the business they’ve barely gotten off the ground―work is sparse and money is running out. So when a society matron offers them a job, they take it―even if it means sneaking into a slimming and exercise facility and consuming only water and health food until they can steal a diary from Grace Whiddle, a resident at the “health farm.” But barely a day in, Grace and her diary escape from the facility―and Grace’s future mother-in-law is found murdered on the premises. Lola and Berta are promptly fired. But before they can climb into Lola’s brown and white Duesenberg Model A and whiz off the health farm property, they find themselves with a new client and a new charge: to solve the murder of Grace’s future mother-in-law.

Teetotaled, Maia Chance's sparkling new mystery will delight readers with its clever plotting, larger-than-life characters, and rich 1920s atmosphere."

I stumbled on the first book in this series at Frugal Muse recently and it looks like such a delightful new period cozy series!

I do love a good cozy so when this was offered, I jumped at the chance to review it and I’m so glad that I did.

Here’s what’s going on. Lola and her former-cook-turned-detective-partner Berta are in need of a case to stay afloat after Lola’s husband death left her penniless and now find themselves checking into a health farm in hopes of discreetly retrieving Grace Whiddle’s journal. Although before they can retrieve the journal, Grace goes missing and her soon-to-be mother-in-law is murdered. Now Lola and Berta find themselves with a murder case to crack.

I missed book one, Come Hell or Highball, and while I was able to follow along with book, I wished I would have read the first book just to clear up some of the questions I had such as what happened between Lola and her brother-in-law and what caused the rift between her family.

The characters in this book were such fun. Lola truly embodies that roaring twenties feel and sort of reminds of an Americanized Miss Fisher. At times, she seems a bit ditzy or more focused on trivial things but she’s still likable. Berta was the more sensible of the two. She’s highly focused and sort of keeps Lola on track.

There’s a bit of a romance going on between Lola and Ralph Oliver. He’s a fellow detective so it adds a bit of competition and humor into the mix.

So, while the mystery—or rather, mysteries—were a little slow, I still found myself riveted to the page as the mysteries slowly unwound and.

This book was such a mad adventure that occasionally dipped into slapstick but was always an entertaining read. Lola hasn't come that far from where we left her last. She's still in her late husband's apartment (rented for his mistress), still with loyal and ever practical Berta, and the money from their last job is fast running out. So of course when the first job that comes in happens to be from a friend of Lola's mother (who is completely in the dark about the whole detective profession) Lola wants nothing more than to turn it down but Berta who wants to pay the rent won't hear of it.

Quickly a straightforward retrieval job lands them feet first in more trouble than they know what to do with as they come face to face with Lola's villainous ex-brother-in-law (who doesn't believe in butter), onto a hip slimming machine which sounds beyond awful, and face to face with a dead body. There is quite a lot of mayhem and mishaps and near misses as Lola stumbles through this case. Her clueless-ness would at times be annoying if it wasn't for the practical matter of fact Berta who manages to set her straight. I really enjoyed meeting all the characters and finding out what their secrets were as they ALL had secrets.

This was a super fun read with more than a few laugh out loud moments. The mystery isn't perfect as there are a few leaps in logic that have to be made to get all the way to the end but the story is so fast paced it didn't really matter. Grab yourself a cinnamon roll just like Berta would make and this book next time you're in the mood for a cozy. You won't regret it!