Stayed up till wee hours to read it all and finish it in one evening. I like Nora, Mick and I dont like most of the others but I love the way the story is written. It flows well for a mystery romancey type of book. Will read more when its written ( )

Another entertaining installment of the Blackbird family.

A former fashion designer turned Pig-Farmer & his new Trophy Wife have opened their Organic farm for a preview to the High Society.... The Pig Farmer's ex-wife shows up w/ a musket & threats looking for her prize pig & discharges the musket towards Trophy Wife.

Later that evening, Nora & Emma Blackbird, return to the farm and find the animals neglected, Trophy-Wife missing, & Pig-Farmer face down in the sty having been stabbed to death with a pitchfork. They also find their nephew's car keys next to the body......

Michael is working with his "assumed dead" brother while trying to close down the Family gambling parlors; Nora's nephew is taken into custody & questioned for the murder; Nora's boss is putting pressure on Nora to nasty-up her reporting style; Nora's sister Libby has become a "stage mother" to the twins; Nora's sister Emma is sneaking around trying to remove evidence that her nephew was involved in the murder, and Nora's pet pig Ralphie is pig-napped.

There is a whole lot of movin' & shakin' going on. Most everyone has a reason to want the Pig-Farmer dead, & many of the Pig-Farmer's family, including the Pig-Farmer are not who they seem to be and have a whole lot to hide. ( )

Fun read. Nora Blackbird has a crazy life. It's one crisis after another revolving around her sisters, nephew, boss, and her wise guy but very handsome partner. Her neighbor has been murdered and her boss was her to find out who did aka Watergate style. Nora is dodging suspects, police and even searching for a stolen pig while juggling all her nephews. ( )

I've been reading this series since the first book came out, [b:How to Murder a Millionaire|813740|How to Murder a Millionaire (Blackbird Sisters Mystery, #1)|Nancy Martin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309212710s/813740.jpg|1331034], and I've been hooked from the start. I can't think of one book in this series that I'd call weak, and Little Black Book of Murder, IMO, upholds the series winning streak. I loved this book and it's always great fun to catch up with the Blackbird sisters and their individual insanities. Libby is often a bit "too much" but the author does try to expose us only in smallish doses, so it never wears too thin. I will say it feels a tiny bit like she's recycling a plot device in this book with Gus chasing Nora and Nora finding herself pregnant - we've seen this before but Nora seems to be going in a different direction this time, so perhaps not.

The mystery plot of this one was a bit - odd. It ends a bit messy, but not. I can't say much more without giving too much away, but it's definitely not one of the pre-canned, pre-packaged plot lines so popular with a lot of cozy authors up until recently. There are a lot of players involved, but I never struggled to keep them all straight and there was only one thread left dangling we never find out definitively who burned Nora's barn - I think we're supposed to take it as read.

I hope this series continues a bit longer, as I am genuinely attached to all of these characters and the world Ms. Martin has built. I'm not sure how I feel about Nora becoming a mother, as I usually don't care for cozies that have a maternal protagonist, but I'm sure willing to find out! ( )

For fans of: Rhys Bowen

Destitute debutante Nora Blackbird is a society columnist, not a gossip monger, so when her new boss at the Philadelphia Intelligencer assigns her a feature on fashion designer turned organic farmer Swain Starr and orders her to either dish dirt or pound pavement, she balks; what will people think? Her house is falling down around her ears, though, and her cupboards are bare, so Nora’s just got to cross her fingers and hope for the sake of her own good name that Starr is squeaky clean.

Any prayer she had of getting away with a tasteful profile goes out the window, though, when Starr’s ex-wife shows up drunk at one of his parties, hurls a host of nasty accusations, and takes a shot (literally) at her younger, prettier replacement. And as if that display weren't sensational enough, Starr's found dead the very next day – stabbed repeatedly with a pitchfork and left among the pigs. Now her boss not only wants her to publicly expose the murdered man's secrets, but to figure out who killed him, as well. (Scoops sell papers, dontcha know.) Can Nora save her job and solve the mystery without sacrificing her reputation – or her life?

Little Black Book of Murder is the ninth of Nancy Martin's Blackbird Sisters Mysteries. It's Rhys Bowen meets Aaron Spelling with a dash of Lisa Lutz thrown in for good measure, and it’s an incredibly entertaining read. Sophisticated yet smutty, heartbreaking yet hilarious, this book contains more sex, lies, intrigue, and family dysfunction than a sweeps-week episode of Dynasty. The pace is quick, the plot is clever and multifaceted, and while the references to the economic downturn, the failing newspaper industry, and the growing popularity of organic farming and the slow-food movement firmly root the story in the here and now, Martin’s writing has a timeless quality about it that guarantees this series will endure.

Martin’s characters are fantastic – rich, textured, and wonderfully well developed. The relationships she’s cultivating between her series leads are remarkably nuanced and compelling as hell. And the fact that nearly every cast member is keeping at least one secret means that there’s more than just one mystery here to be solved. This not only keeps the tension high, but keeps the reader guessing, as well, which makes for a book that’s nearly impossible to put down. ( )