A Season for Killing Blondes

Joanne Guidoccio

Jun 2015 · The Wild Rose Press Inc

About this eBook

Hours before the opening of her career counseling practice, Gilda Greco discovers the body of golden girl, Carrie Ann Godfrey, neatly arranged in the dumpster outside Gilda’s office. Gilda’s life and budding career are stalled as Detective Carlo Fantin, her former high school crush, conducts the investigation. When three more dead blondes turn up, all brutally strangled and deposited near Gilda’s favorite haunts, she is pegged as a prime suspect for the murders. Frustrated by Carlo’s chilly detective persona and the mean girl antics of Carrie Ann’s meddling relatives, Gilda decides to launch her own investigation. She discovers a gaggle of suspects, among them a yoga instructor in need of anger management training, a lecherous photographer, and fourteen ex-boyfriends. As the puzzle pieces fall into place, shocking revelations emerge, forcing Gilda to confront the envy and deceit she has long overlooked.

Ratings and reviews

Guidoccio creates her latest mystery with stylish yet easy to follow writing and a plot that keeps you on your toes, without becoming convoluted. The sense of community that runs alongside the mystery of the novel was quite engaging. I enjoy the way that Guidoccio subtly develops her setting while furthering the storyline itself. The characters in this novel definitely made me giggle more than once. They combine with the mysterious plot in a way that makes the story fun, while also suspenseful. I couldn’t help but like these individuals as they invited me into their lives. This was definitely a unique and fun novel. Guidoccio has created a mystery with a sense of irony that I really enjoyed. Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this work in exchange for an honest review.

The character-driven plot moves at a quick pace with snappy dialogue steering the mystery bus on its raucous, rollicking journey to discover whodunit. As the corpses pile up, a multi-generational cast of well-meaning, but busybody relatives both complicate the protagonist’s attempts to solve the crimes and make the laugh-out-loud story all the more hilarious. The author deftly pokes fun at the foibles of her ethnic heritage without plunging it into caricature.

About the author

In high school, Joanne dabbled in poetry, but it would be over three decades before she entertained the idea of writing as a career. She listened to her practical Italian side and earned degrees in mathematics and education. She experienced many fulfilling moments as she watched her students develop an appreciation (and sometimes, love) of mathematics. Later, she obtained a post-graduate diploma as a career development practitioner and put that skill set to use in the co-operative education classroom. She welcomed this opportunity to help her students experience personal growth and acquire career direction through their placements.In 2008, she took advantage of early retirement and decided to launch a second career that would tap into her creative side and utilize her well-honed organizational skills. Slowly, a writing practice emerged. Her articles and book reviews were published in newspapers, magazines, and online. When she tried her hand at fiction, she made reinvention a recurring theme in her novels and short stories. A member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, and Romance Writers of America, Joanne writes paranormal romance, cozy mysteries, and inspirational literature from her home base of Guelph, Ontario.