Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge (A Jaine Austen Mystery #16) by Laura Levine

Freelance writer Jaine Austen is feeling festive about spending Christmas house-sitting at a posh Bel Air mansion, accompanied by her friend Lance and her cat, Prozac. But when a grumpy neighbor gets himself iced, she’ll have to find the culprit or she may spend the New Year in jail . . .
 
Scotty Parker is a former child star who once played Tiny Tim, but now he’s grown up into the role of neighborhood Scrooge. He cuts the wires on his neighbors’ Christmas lights and tells local kids that Santa had a stroke. And his miserly, bah-humbug attitude lasts year-round—a fact known all too well by his current wife, his ex-wife, his maid, and many more. 
 
Scotty thinks he can stage a comeback with the screenplay he’s working on (The Return of Tiny Tim: Vengeance Is Mine!), and Jaine’s been reluctantly helping him edit it. So when Scotty is bludgeoned with a frozen chocolate yule log and the police start making a list of suspects and checking it twice, Jaine’s name is unfortunately included. True, she’s been under some stress, with Lance trying to set her up on dates and her fickle feline taking a sudden liking to someone else—but she’s not guilty of murder. Now she just has to prove it, by using her gift for detection and figuring out who committed this holiday homicide.  (Summay via Goodreads)


I cannot believe that Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge by Laura Levine is the sixteenth book in the Jaine Austen Mystery series and the first one that I have read !!  I instantly fell in love with Jaine, her adorable friend Lance, her cat Prozac and the craziness that follows them !!!  Of course some of the craziness is all of Lance's doing but you gotta love him for it !!

In Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge Jaine and Lance are house sitting for one of Lance's rich customers while she is away for the holidays.  Jaine cannot believe their luck....a massive mansion in Bel Air ... unfortunately no pets are allowed but Jaine is saved by the neighbors.  Scotty, who had his 2 minutes of fame starring in a remake of The Christmas Carol when he was a child and his trophy wife, Missy jump at the chance to watch Prozac while Jaine and Lance house sit next store.....on one condition..... Jaine help Scotty edit his screenplay.  The screenplay is a horrible piece of work where Tiny Tim gets revenge on everyone which makes sense that Scotty wrote it because he is a horrible person.  He is a modern day Scrooge all year long !!

So when Jaine finds Scotty dead in his office the list of suspects is longer than Santa's nice list and sadly Jaine is on the top of the list !!!  So while Lance is off working and daydreaming about the hunky mailman he met, Jaine is lying her way into peoples homes in order to clear her name !!

From the fake profile Lance wrote for Jaine of Smatch.com to the emails Jaine receives from her parents who are away on a cruise to the grenn smoothies that Lance whips up each morning, to Jaines obsession with Chunky Monkey ice cream, to the neighbor Missy adoringly turning Jaine's cat against her, to the way Jaine investigates.....you will NOT be able to put this book down.  

I fell in love with everything about this book ....the only thing upsetting is that I missed the first 15 books.  Well maybe I'm on Santa's nice list and he will help me out with resolving that issue.


Review by Missi S.