Murder on Sex Island

A marvelous parody of reality TV shows—think especially of Love Island—mashed up with traditional mysteries, if traditional mysteries include lots of fake sex, along with fake hair and teeth. When one cast member disappears from the super-successful, super-sleazy show Sex Island, the producers need to bring on someone else as a replacement ASAP. Staten Island native Luella van Horn is quickly hired as a two-fer, to join the show as a new contestant and in the meantime solve the case of the missing cast member. Except Luella is really a divorced former social worker from Staten Island named Marie Jones, who aspires to be a private eye and whose past is pretty inept, if incredibly humorous. But as the story grows darker, Marie finds herself trying to get out of a situation that is becoming riskier by the hour. First released as a self-published novel, this book was quickly embraced by comedian Jo Firestone’s many fans. While I haven’t heard it, the audio version, narrated by Firestone herself, is hugely popular.