The Man in the Microwave Oven: A Mystery

Susan Cox

Nov 2020 · Theo Bogart Mysteries Book 2 · Macmillan + ORM

About this ebook

Following Susan Cox’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel award-winning debut, The Man in the Microwave Oven is her next delightfully quirky mystery featuring San Francisco transplant Theo Bogart.

Fleeing from a murder and family tragedy in her native England, where she was the scandal du jour for the tabloid press, Theo Bogart changed her name and built an undercover life in a close-knit San Francisco neighborhood. She didn’t expect to find love and friendship there, and now she doesn’t know how—or if—to reveal the truth.

After a confrontation with a difficult neighbor, Theo fears her secrets are about to be uncovered after all. When the woman who threatened to expose her is murdered, Theo is embroiled in the kind of jeopardy she crossed an ocean to escape. Worse yet, dangerous family secrets have followed her. Theo’s grandfather unveils a glimpse of the shadowy world he once inhabited as an agent for the British Secret Service, bringing an even bigger breed of trouble—and another death—to Theo’s doorstep. She finds herself fighting to protect herself, her family, and her new friends, aware that one of them might be a murderer.

Susan Cox has once again painted a delightfully quirky portrait of a colorful San Francisco neighborhood and a woman finding her way through exactly the kind of scandalous mystery she was trying to leave behind.

Ratings and reviews

spies, murder, family-dynamics, friendship, satire, San Francisco***** I'm thinking that this is also a kind of satire on spy novels as well as being a pretty good murder mystery. Theo is a Britisher who ran to the far side of the US because of majorly bad press, but the reader doesn't get to know what the issues were until a third of the way into the book. When she fled, her wealthy grandfather promptly followed to be there for her as well as provide further financial backup. Theo owns and operates a fragrance business and has an assortment of friends in the neighborhood and one bete noire common to all the neighbors, a nasty blackmailer of a lawyer. Of course Theo is the one to find the lawyer murdered in her Tesla, and not long enough later she finds fingers in the microwave of her friend's coffeeshop and the rest of the body in another area of the neighborhood. But then things get crazy. Even crazier than the characters. A very interesting read! I requested and received a free ebook copy from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

About the author

Susan Cox is a former journalist. She has also been the marketing and public relations director for a safari park, a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations, and president of the Palm Beach County (Florida) Attractions Association. She considers herself transcontinental and transatlantic, equally at home in San Francisco and Florida, and with a large and boisterous extended family in England. She frequently wears a Starfleet communicator pin, because you never know. Her first novel, The Man on the Washing Machine, won the 2014 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition.