Read A Review:

If you like Janet Evanovich, you'll love Stevi Mittman!

Jennifer Greene, USA Today Best-selling author


In Whose Number Is Up, Anyway? (4.5), by Stevi Mittman, Teddi Bayer, interior designer and amateur sleuth, is at the market when a body is found in a freezer. She's sure it's murder, but the police insist it's natural causes, even when a doctor treating the man is found dead. Her sometimes lover, detective Drew Scoones, is on the case, and Teddi is determined to prove she's right. Mixed in are her family, including an ex-husband, who once tried to gaslight her into a mental institution and a sullen teenage daughter who wants her mother back with her ex. The deaths and danger continue as Teddi decorates a bowling alley and investigates herself into danger. As always, Mittman has a wonderful book with great humor and heart that can't be put down.

Page Traynor, Romantic Times


Whose Number is Up, Anyway? is the fourth complete novel in the Teddi Bayer series, a light-hearted series about a mother of three who solves mysteries while working in a growing decorating business and juggling a trio of hot men. In the latest installment (Teddi has also appeared in two anthologies and two free online reads at eharlequin), Teddi finds herself at the scene of what appears to have been a simple heart attack. But, the  dead man in question is in an awfully odd place - the freezer at a local meat market. Teddi smells a mystery, but her detective friend and sometimes lover, Drew Scoones, dismisses her theories.

Undaunted, Teddi tries to quietly investigate the death of the man, whom she recognizes as a league member at the bowling alley she is decorating. When a doctor is killed in the parking lot of a local hospital and it turns out there's a connection between her and the victim in the freezer, Teddi becomes even more determined to solve the crimes.

Not that anyone else believes the guy in the freezer was murdered. Teddi must constantly prove herself, in spite of her success rate. I think that's one thing I like about the character: she's determined and undaunted by the skeptics that surround her, but she's not quite as bumbling and stupid as a lot of similar heroines (although you can expect the occasional pratfall). Her family is also an important part of the character mix, chiefly the crazy mother who is impossible to please and the ex-husband who still doesn't quite understand why she left him.

Whose Number is Up, Anyway? was the perfect antidote to the downers I've recently read and it's an excellent summer read - nice and light. I love a bit of a chick lit upper, now and then, and the timing was perfect. The one thing I'm really curious about is . . . how long will Teddi keep Drew hanging? Is the author going to keep this series going eternally, like the Stephanie Plum series? Because I enjoy the series, but I felt like the way Teddi avoided commitment in this particular book hinted at the possibility of, "I'm going to keep this series going forever" syndrome. There came a point in the Stephanie Plum series that each book began to take on the feel of a rerun - same old, same old . . . and never with a satisfactory conclusion to Stephanie's man problem. So, I stopped reading the series. My hope is that Stevi will not drag out the series forever. However, I'd also like to see her obtain the success of Janet Evanovich; I think her books are every bit as entertaining as the Stephanie Plum books and I'm hoping Stevi will eventually branch out and offer up some different characters.

Nancy, Bookfoolery Blogspot

*UPDATE* - I neglected to say that I thought the ending was wonderful and it had me yearning to rush out and buy the next in the series (which, of course, will not be available for quite some time). The next title is "Who Creamed Peaches, Anyway?" and it has a general 2008 release date. I should also mention that Teddi does change and grow throughout the series. I love Stephanie Plum and her wacky family, but she doesn't really alter much from one novel to the next. Teddi does; and, in that way, I think she's actually a much better character. Don't tell Ms. Evanovich I said that.

Note that this is yet another book with a decorator, but I loved it. I think that whether or not I like a book with an interior-decorator protagonist has a lot to do with detail: too much chatter about the furnishings, the paint colors, the flooring and accessories is all filler and a total yawn. The Teddi Bayer series provides a nice balance, heavier on the mystery than visual detail.

4.5/5 - loads of fun; avoid if you can't stand fluff, but I think it's a perfect summer vacation read.